‘How a transplant saved my life’

A YOUNG Southside mum has recalled the moment she fell ill with kidney failure and how a transplant just last month has changed her life.

Suzanne Best is just one of many whose stories will be highlighted during Organ Donor Awareness Week which is organised by the Irish Kidney Association from March 29 to April 5.

Suzanne, from Sandyford who is now living in Lucan, fell sick for the first time on December 6 2009 aged just 31.

“I called a doctor to my house in the early hours of Sunday morning,

? she recalled.

“He told me to get myself straight to the nearest A&E.

“I was having terrible trouble breathing. I will never forget leaving the house that morning to the sound of my baby’s tears.

“She was two-years-of-age. I arrived at Tallaght hospital A&E and went straight into triage with my blood pressure through the roof.

“I was unconscious and put on life support after my lungs failed. When I woke up two days later after six blood transfusions I found myself with tubes all over me.

“All I could think of was my baby at home and how much I wanted to hold her but I knew I was very sick and very weak.

“My life from this moment on was to change forever. I went for a scan on my kidneys and found I had end stage renal failure and needed dialysis to remain alive.

“The hospital was fantastic, from my consultant down to the nursing staff. They helped me with everything and without them I can sincerely say I would be dead.

?

Eventually Suzanne was put on a particular form of dialysis that allowed her to return home.

“I have been on dialysis for four years and my life has completely changed. I try my very best to live every moment as though it were my last.

“My daughter is now six years of age and she has learned to accept that her mummy is sick and I can’t always do the things she may want to.

?

Then, in February, Suzanne received the call that she had been waiting for.

“I still cannot believe it,

? she added, referring to the transplant that was successfully carried out.

“I received my gift of life and I can truly say my life has turned around.

“I have to sincerely thank my donor. I can never thank them or their family enough for what they have done for me. I am me again and the mummy my daughter never knew.

?

This year the popular broadcaster Mary Kennedy has accepted the voluntary role of ambassador for Organ Donor Awareness 2014 on the 50th anniversary of Ireland’s first organ transplant.

In January 1964 the first transplant operation, a kidney transplant, took place at Jervis Street Hospital in Dublin.

Mary will front the forthcoming Organ Donor Awareness Week campaign when

“forget-me-not flower

? emblems will be on sale throughout the country by Irish Kidney Association volunteers.