'A whole new lease of life’: Cork mother thrives after life-saving heart transplant in Dublin

Cork mother Eva Mikuta shares her heart transplant journey, highlighting the lifesaving impact of organ donation and recovery

An event in the Mater Hospital to mark 40 years since the first heart transplant was Prof Freddie Wood (centre) with (l-r) heart transplant recipients Gillian Curtis from Athy, Co Kildare, Ewa Mikuta from Macroom, Cork, Andy Kavanagh from Coolock, Dublin who is the longest living transplant recipient in Ireland and Patrick Barry from Tallaght, Dublin who in 1993 aged only 11 was one of the youngest heart transplant patients in the country. Picture Conor McCabe

Eva Mikuta was a young mother in Cork when she had a heart transplant, joining an elite club of 447 people who have had this operation in Ireland since 1985.

“I got my life back, they really saved my life,” she said last Thursday.