The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Little Waterville boy needs ‘the gift of life’
A THREE-YEAR-OLD boy from Waterville is among the many people in Ireland in need of the gift of life from a kidney donor – and his mother has urged families in Kerry to discuss their organ-donation wishes over Christmas.
Little Cíalan Walsh (3) is the youngest of Fiona and Jonathan Walsh’s five children. Fiona explained to The Kerryman that, when 21 weeks’ pregnant, she found out her boy had only one functioning kidney – and this kidney is only at 20-to-25-percent function today.
Cíalan’s health is deteriorating. While he has not commenced dialysis treatment yet, he is expected to start in the near future, and his weight, around 12kgs, is very low for someone his age.
“Cíalan’s current diagnosis is that he is in progressive chronic kidney renal failure,” Fiona told The Kerryman. “I was 21 weeks’ pregnant when I knew he had just one kidney working, but we hoped it would double in size and do the work of two kidneys. But it was a very small kidney, and it hasn’t grown much, if at all, since birth.”
To date, the little brother of Darragh, Aoibhínn, Kayleigh, and Orlaith has regularly had to attend hospital appointments and undergo frequent blood tests and ultrasounds. His treatment has taken place in University Hospital Kerry and Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, and he is taking daily antibiotics to guard against infections.
“Once he is put on a waiting list for a transplant, myself and his father, Jonathan, will be assessed for living donation and hopefully one of us will be a suitable match,” she said. “He might possibly need a kidney within 12 months, but we’re not sure.
“We attended the lighting of the Christmas Tree at the Cathedral in Killarney to help promote awareness of organ donation, and Cíalan had actually been discharged from Tralee just an hour before following a kidney infection.
“Over the Christmas period, we’d like people in Kerry to let their next-of-kin know that they want to be organ donors. It’s not enough to register as an organ donor as your next-of-kin has the final say, so they need to be informed.”
Fiona paid tribute to those who’ve assisted Cíalan’s medical treatment to date. She also acknowledged the Irish Kidney Association, especially Theresa Looney of the Kerry branch, whose work ethic was described by Fiona as “tireless”.
“The stats show you’re three times more likely to need an organ transplant that you are to be an eligible donor,” Fiona said.
“To families like ours, it would be the gift of life. No parent wants to have their child depending on a machine to live, and that’s essentially what dialysis means.”
To find out more about becoming an organ donor, one can visit www.citizensinformation. ie/en/health/health_services/ blood_and_organ_donation/ organ_and_body_donation. html or the Irish Kidney Association website.