Hannah 'lives on in the four lives she saved' after organ donation

(Left to right) at the national launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week 2024 were heart transplant recipient Derek O’Sullivan and liver transplant recipient Noreen Murphy. Picture: Andres Poveda

The mother of a two-year-old girl whose organs were donated after she died said she “lives on in the four lives she has saved” as she urged people to support organ donations.

An event launching Organ Donor Awareness Week also heard the opt-out donor system is expected to be in operation before the end of December.

Marie Kealy with an image of her deceased donor daughter Hannah (age 2). “For us it meant if even just one family weren't put into the situation we were in then that enough, but our little Hannah went on to save four families.”  Picture: Andres Poveda

Marie Kealy recalled how Hannah was the light of their lives and loved to help her husband, Denis, feed the calves. Marie’s voice broke as she explained after a tragic accident Hannah was declared brain-stem dead in CHI at Temple St.

“When we realised we weren't getting the miracle we all so desperately hoped for that week, we made the profound decision to donate our little girl’s organs,” she said.

“For us it meant if even just one family weren't put into the situation we were in then that enough, but our little Hannah went on to save four families.” 

She told how Hannah’s “little heart” went to a boy, part of her liver to a premature baby, her small bowel and small colon to another boy and her kidneys to a young mother.

She became the miracle that those four families hoped for, for so long, and that brings us some peace. 

"To think there are parts of our little girl working away in other people is a surreal feeling at times,” the heartbroken mother said.

She added: “Her memory lives on in the four lives she has saved and the countless others she has touched through her precious gift of organ donation." 

Derek O’Sullivan, from Cork, said he is 46, a husband and a father of two thanks to his donor.

“In 2018 my life was saved by a heart transplant,” he said, adding he ran a 5km race on Bere Island on his transplant anniversary.

He had been diagnosed with sustainable ventricular tachycardia at just 25. By 2017, despite treatment at Cork University Hospital, he became more unwell and soon after was diagnosed with end-stage heart failure.

Now, he said: “I get to live a life, my kids get to have a dad and all this is down to my donor.”  That family, he said, were “decent enough” to donate and he urged others to do the same.

Sarah McEvoy, however, spoke about the tragedy which hit her family when her brother Kevin, just 34, was not matched with a heart last year. He was diagnosed with heart failure in 2019 and died having newly become a father with his wife of two years.

“I could stand here for hours and talk about how strong my brother was and how much of a fighter he was until the end but none of that matters,” she said.

“Kevin surviving depended on many things. His life depended on a new heart. A heart that belonged to someone else. There was a shortage of suitable donors. No suitable heart.” 

Despite her fresh grief, she said: “The truth is, we are shattered by our loss, but we don’t want another family to endure this pain.

If our story prompts even one person to discuss their wishes regarding organ donation with their family, it would spare multiple families the pain we feel every day.

Her plea was supported by Bernie Glynn, 77, who said a kidney transplant in 1979 changed her life.

“It’s working brilliantly since, and I’m very grateful to my donor and everyone involved,” she said. “I’m living a pretty good life, I worked most of my life and retired at 60.” 

Her husband, Albert, now deceased, was a founder member of the Irish Kidney Association (IKA).

Health minister Stephen Donnelly praised the IKA for its impact on the Human Tissue Act. This ushers in an opt-out donor system, whereby everyone is presumed to be a potential donor.

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“We are working to having it through and operational in this calendar year,” he said. "That will be a very important change.” 

Dr Catherine Motherway, HSE Organ Donation Transplant Ireland and former head of the intensive care unit at University Hospital Limerick, said in over 60 years “almost 3,200 deceased donors and over 660 living donors have allowed over 7,800 transplants to take place” here. 

“Organ donors save lives,” she said.

“In this very tormented and unsettled world of ours they are a ray of pure goodness showing us the very best of human nature, people giving and sharing with others.” 

There are about 600 people on waiting lists for organ transplants.  Last year, 282 transplants were carried out, 32 more than 2022, thanks to families of 95 deceased donors and 30 living kidney donors.