‘Thank you, Dr Neligan, for saving my father’

WHEN renowned Irish heart surgeon Dr Maurice Neligan was brought to his final resting place yesterday, the airwaves were filled with statistics, and recalled achievements explaining why the elderly medic’s life was so important.

He performed Ireland’s first heart transplant in 1985, they said. He was involved in the establishment of the Blackrock Clinic in the mid-1980s, they noted. He was an uncompromising voice for improved health services for all in this country, they emphasised.

The points are valid, and worth remembering. But, like thousands of other people, for me the reason Dr Neligan should be mourned is far more simple.

In July 1991, when I was eight, my father Seán was rushed to the Mater hospital suffering from severe chest pains.

Like most men, he had ignored the signs and carried on with his stressful lifestyle. A quadruple bypass operation at the age of 52 was his reward. If it had been just a few years earlier, or if a less able surgeon had been in charge, I may never have really known my father.

Instead, Dr Neligan gave him 12 more years of life, and gave me my dad back.

It would be twisting the truth to say this extra time involved a perfect, “happy families” image.

My parents, who separated before I started school, were no more than cordial to each other. My brother and I had different relationships with our father.

But whether it involved holidays to his childhood home in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, weekends at his flat, or trips to relatives in England, they are moments I treasure. I loved my dad. I still do.

When my father passed away on Sunday, February 16, 2003, I was heartbroken.

After marching in the massive anti-war rally through Dublin city – a fitting ending to the life he led – he phoned me that night to see if we could catch up in town the next day. He never showed up.

When gardaí came to the house and explained he had been found, aged 64, in the hall of his new home after dying of a heart attack, my world momentarily caved in.

But thanks to Dr Neligan, when the inevitable eventually caught up with us, I had actually had a chance to get to know my father. Without Dr Neligan’s expertise, I would have been an eight-year-old child standing beside my father’s coffin, traumatised and with no real understanding of what was happening.

Dr Neligan ensured I knew my father. Like thousands of others with a similar experience, when the 73-year-old surgeon was laid to rest yesterday, it is these life-giving achievements that will be best remembered.

Thank you, Maurice. You did more for me than you will ever know.