Organ donor who died from stairs fall saves five lives

A 28-year-old woman who died after tumbling down her stairs while wearing new flip-flops has given the gift of life to five people.

Rosemarie Loughlin’s heart went to a 16-year-old boy whose transplant took place in Great Ormonde Street Hospital, London.

Both of her kidneys were transplanted — one to a 15-year-old boy, the other to a 50-year-old married father with renal failure who had been waiting for five years for a suitable match.

Rosemarie’s liver was given to a 68-year-old married man.

Her right lung was given to a 59-year-old married man and his transplant took place in the Mater Hospital.

Her widower, Brian Loughlin, who found her at the bottom of their stairs last July in their home in Rathcluain, Kiltimagh, Co Mayo, was praised for his selflessness and courage in allowing his wife’s organs to be donated.

“You may have lost your wife in tragic circumstances but it must be some consolation for you to know that so many families have benefited from the donation of her organs,” coroner John O’Dwyer said.

Details of the various organ donations were revealed at an inquest in Castlebar into Ms Loughlin’s tragic death.

“All five transplant operations were very successful and the patients who were transplanted are well on the road to recovery”, Aileen Counihan, transplant co-ordinator at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, explained in a letter to the coroner.

Evidence was given to the inquest that Rosemarie and her husband, who both worked at top pharmaceutical firm Allergan of Westport, had been planning a holiday in Portugal and that on the evening she fell down the stairs, she had been wearing black and blue flip-flops.

She was found by her husband badly injured at the foot of the stairs in the early hours of July 19 last year after he had completed a night shift in Allergan.

In a statement read on his behalf to the inquest, Mr Loughlin said his wife was unconscious and bleeding when he found her at the bottom of the stairs.

He raised the alarm by ringing his wife’s sister, Deborah, and by dialling 999.

Mr Loughlin outlined the last text he had received from his wife at 4.32pm on July 18.

The message from Rosemarie, in response to Brian telling her that he would go with her to her birthplace of Co Donegal that weekend, read: “Excellent baby, brilliant news.”

Louise Lavelle, Bohola, Co Mayo, a sister-in-law of the dead woman, gave evidence of finding flip-flops at the bottom of the stairs on July 19.

The coroner returned a verdict of death in accordance with the medical evidence.