Seeing bypass convinced me of ‘prime mover’

The wife of pioneering surgeon Maurice Neligan has told how watching her husband perform open heart surgery made her believe in life after death.

Pat Neligan opened up about her husband’s death nearly two year ago for the first time on Saturday Night with Miriam as the Mater Foundation paid tribute to the much-loved cardiologist by naming a new theatre after him.

Mr Neligan, one of the best-known doctors in Ireland, performed the first open-heart surgery in 1974 and first heart transplant in 1985.