IRISH LUNG TRANSPLANT recipients are urging the public to stay opted in as organ donors when new legislation comes into effect this summer. 

When the new Human Tissue Act comes into effect next month, it will be up to members of the public to add their names to an opt-out register if they don’t want to be organ donors. 

Today, in the Mater Hospital’s National Centre for lung and heart transplants, organ recipients gathered to celebrate the success of the centre.

There were emotional scenes as some recipients met the medical professionals who looked after them for the first time since their recoveries. 

“Don’t be afraid – go for it. You could save someones life, someone saved mine,” Thomas McGrane, one of the first people to receive an lung transplant in Ireland 19 years ago said. 

The first ever transplant in Ireland took place at the Mater 20 years ago today. Since then 379 lung transplants have been performed at the hospital.

Before 2005, patients in Ireland had to travel to Newcastle for the treatment. Many on the waiting list were too ill to go by the time they got the call. 

Thomas McGrane (68) a former bus driver and lung transplant recipient, and his brother Bernard.

Tommy, a 68-year-old former bus driver, is like a celebrity in the Mater today – many of the staff still remember him from his time there. 

“My breathing started to get bad over 20 years ago. I couldn’t move, I was getting wheeled around and I was on oxygen. I had pulmonary fibrosis like, I had no quality of life,” he said, speaking at the hospital. 

His brother, Bernard, was with him for support. 

“It was horrible looking at him those four years he was on the waiting list. You knew he was dying, like. He couldn’t walk more than three feet,” he said. 

“I’d been here for a couple of months when I finally got the call that was the call. There had been a few before that where they got me prepped, and then when they did the initial checks, they realised that it wasn’t going to be a match. Those were days of real heartbreak,” Tommy said. 

“It’s just a let down,” his brother Bernard chimed in, “You think it will never happen for him, and then when it does, and you can barely believe it.” 

The difference that Tommy’s lung transplant has made to his life can’t be understated. 

“I wouldn’t be here today otherwise, that is for sure. I’ve got to be with my three kids, and got to be with my grandchildren. What a gift to give someone,” he said. 

Tommy knows that his organ donor was a teenage boy, but he doesn’t know his identity. 

“Yeah, I think about it, I think about it a lot to be honest. I sent some letters to the hospital, and they sent them on to the family. I hope they know how grateful I am, you could never say it enough,” he said.

Lyndsey Barrett (52), is a double lung transplant recipient.

Lyndsey Barrett, 52, is nine months on from a double lung transplant. Her condition was initially diagnosed as asthma, and then eventually she was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension. 

In April of 2024 Lyndsey was put on the official waiting list for a double transplant, before undergoing the operation that August. She was on oxygen for over two years before her surgery.

“I was just leaving the house to go to the shop in the months before. I was on liquid oxygen so I had this backpack, and evaporation would come out of it, so people would stop me all the time because they thought it was on fire.

“I’d turn around and they’d see the equipment that helps me breathe, and they’d say ‘Oh, sorry’, and give me that sympathetic look. It wasn’t easy,” she said. 

Lyndsey worked for an electricity supply company and traveled the country before she became very ill. 

“Medically, I wasn’t supposed to be working at all anymore, but I did ten hours a week from the office, just for my sanity,” she said. 

It was a Monday evening when she got the call to say that there was a pair of lungs that would be a potential match. 

“You come in and do the tests – you still don’t know if it will go ahead, those lungs have to be able to fit your cavities. It was 3.30 am then when they came and said that the surgery was going ahead. I was with my husband Paul, and we only had five minutes, so he just said ‘Right, see you, love you.” 

“You don’t think that it could be the last time you ever see them in the moment, because it happens so quickly,” she said. 

Lyndsey was taken out of a coma six days after the operation. She said that the recovery was difficult for her, her husband and her daughter, but today, she feels fantastic. 

“If I keep on the same path, I’ll be back to work soon, it’s just amazing. 

“If you are considering becoming an organ donor, please do. Tick all the boxes. You can save lives, my life was saved, I am only 52, I got my life back, and let me tell you, I have plenty of life to live.” 

Professor Freddie Wood, who is now 77, joined the organ recipients for the celebration. Twenty years ago, he was part of the team who carried out the first lung transplant on Irish soil. 

“There was a sense of urgency and possibility,” he explained.

Professor Wood said that Irish doctors pushed for the surgery to be performed here for years before it was finally approved under then Health Minister Brian Cowen.

“We knew that bringing lung transplantation to Ireland would change lives, and it has. A network of healthcare providers interested in transplant continues to be developed and consolidated”. 

Professor Karen Redmond, the Consultant Thoracic and Lung Transplant surgeon at the Master today said that for many people, organ donation is their only hope. 

“Debilitating breathlessness affects thousands of people of all ages. It’s horrible to recognise that some are actively dying. A lung transplant takes resources, skill, dedication and most of all sacrifice. The national transplant unit at the Mater is proud to celebrate 20 years of care today. This operation is truly life changing,” she said.