A second lung transplant has been successfully carried out at Dublin's Mater hospital, it was announced yesterday. The first such operation in the State took place at the hospital in May.
The recipient was 56-year-old Limerick woman Veronica Doyle. She had been on oxygen 24 hours a day until she received the transplant.
Two weeks after the operation she was able to walk from the hospital and said she looked forward to returning home to a normal life.
The recipient of the latest lung transplant is a man in his 50s. He was operated on last Saturday but the hospital only announced yesterday that the operation had taken place.
It said the man received a right lung and is now recuperating at the hospital's special unit.
Until this year all patients who required lung transplants had to travel to the UK for surgery. Some will continue to have to travel to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle as the Mater unit is concentrating on doing single-lung transplants for the moment although it hopes to progress to double lung transplants.
Meanwhile the hospital, which has been performing heart transplants for 20 years, carried out its 237th in the past week. The recipient, who is a woman in her 40s, is also recuperating at the hospital.
The transplants were undertaken by a multidisciplinary team led by Dr Jim Egan, lead transplant physician, and Mr Freddie Wood, lead surgeon.
Meanwhile the Irish Heart and Lung Transplant Association will celebrate 20 years of the national transplant programme with an ecumenical service of celebration and thanksgiving tomorrow at 3.30pm in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.
The service is due to be attended by some 200 heart and lung transplant recipients, including Ms Doyle.
Also due to attend is the State's longest-surviving heart transplant recipient, Andy Kavanagh, whose operation took place in 1986.
The State's youngest-ever recipient, Patrick Barry, is also due to be there. He was just 11 when he was operated on.