Twenty years ago Vera Dwyer had been given days to live; today she is the longest-surviving, single-lung transplant patient in the world, writes Marese McDonagh
VERA DWYER can't stop counting her blessings. Yesterday the sun beamed down on what she calls "my patch of heaven" in the parish of Keash, Co Sligo and she marvelled at the sights and sounds all around, the call of the cuckoo, the buzzing of the bees, and the giant chestnut tree shading the old stone walls bordering the lane she calls home.
There was a time she says when she wouldn't have noticed these wonders.
Twenty years ago this week, frail and on oxygen around the clock, Vera was brought to Harefield Hospital in London for assessment for a lung transplant operation. When she arrived on May 15th the surgeon told her family that she had days to live. If he had known how ill she was, he would not have asked her to make the journey, he told them apologetically.
Within three days following the death of a 22-year-old English woman, Vera and two other patients were undergoing transplant surgery. Vera was in her late 40s. "The other two were dying as well - there was a boy of 18 who got a new heart and a girl who was 22 who also had a lung transplant," recalled Vera.
Before she left the hospital five months later, the other two had died. Vera still thinks of them, and the young donor.
She never learned the identity of the young woman who gave her a second chance but "I pray for her every day. All I know is that she died in a road accident."
Staff at Harefield Hospital have told Vera that she is the longest-surviving, single-lung transplant patient in the world. Mark Murphy, chief executive of the Irish Kidney Association, and Larry Warren, chairman of the Irish Donor Network, believe that this is very likely.
The once strapping county camogie player had shrunk from 11 to seven stone by the time she got home after the surgery but over the years she never let herself contemplate the possibility that her body might reject the lung.
Vera was in her mid-40s and the mother of four children aged eight to 17 when she developed a condition known as fibrosis avialitis which attacked the cells in her lungs. "No , I never smoked. Everyone asks that," she says.
The cause of the lung condition is still a mystery but it was so debilitating that she was eventually confined to bed for two years and was on oxygen for 24 hours a day.
"In those days it was very rare to even hear of anyone having a lung transplant but I was told that it was my only hope. Without it I would die."
This was an option Vera says she wouldn't contemplate. "The kids were very young. I did not want to leave them. I wanted to see them grow."
Vera and her husband, Michael, spent five months in Harefield Hospital after Sir Magdi Yacoub, the renowned Egyptian surgeon, carried out the transplant. She was on a ventilator for months afterwards.
The couple celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary that July in the hospital and as a special treat Vera was taken off the ventilator that day.
Over time she had to learn how to eat, talk and walk again and the road back to good health was a slow but steady one. "I never gave up. I never thought I would die. I always thought positive and I still do. Without that I would have been gone long ago."
In October 1988 a huge welcoming party awaited Vera and Michael when they flew into Knock Airport and when they got back to their home in the townland of Carrowcrory the neighbours had all turned out with balloons and banners.
Gradually, with the support of her husband, children, neighbours and friends Vera was back to herself - driving, shopping, looking after the house and an active family whose passions were and still are Manchester United and Irish music.
Last Sunday, Vera was in the thick of the celebrations when grandson Eoghan made his First Holy Communion and her children and grandchildren toasted their favourite team's success.
"I have done so many things that I could have missed out on. I have been on sun holidays. I went to Washington, New York and Boston. I even went to the White House."
She has six grandchildren now but sadly has lost many of the people who worried for her and helped her through her illness. "Since that time I lost my mother, three of my brothers, my sister and a brother in law, all people who looked after me and worried about me," she says.
"Sometimes I wonder why God left me here but if he had a purpose for me I hope I fulfil it."
Vera does have a mission to spread the word about the importance of carrying donor cards.
"I would love people to think about the difference it could make. All my family carry cards. I appreciate every day my donor gave me," she stresses.
Late last year Vera developed kidney problems which are related to the anti-rejection drugs she has been taking for two decades but she insists that every day is a gift, even the three a week she spends having dialysis at Sligo General Hospital.
Her "new" lung is still perfect she says and when she is feeling stronger she hopes that she will be a candidate for a kidney transplant.
This weekend she and her family will celebrate the 20th anniversary of her new lease of life at a party for 200 neighbours and friends who supported them when life seemed to be suspended by a thread.
Larry Warren never met Vera, but he points out that a positive attitude and healthy lifestyle are keys to survival "and I suspect this lady has both".
Mark Murphy says that 600 Irish people are waiting for kidney, heart, lung or liver transplants . He says people are getting the message about the importance of carrying donor cards. "All of us are three times more likely to end up on an organ transplant waiting list than of being in the circumstances of actually being a donor," he says.
To get a donor card text the word "donor" to 50050