Two-year-old Hannah’s gift of life-saving organs ‘gave four families their miracles’

The Irish Kidney Association has appealed for more people to become transplant donors

Two-year-old Hannah Kealy had the “wildest, blondest hair, with the darkest brown eyes” and she loved helping her father Dennis feed the calves on their farm.

“She was a strong, independent, funny, easy-going little lady,” her mother Marie said.

When Hannah died nearly two years ago, she gave the gift of life to four people after her organs were donated and used in transplant operations.

Her family, from Timahoe, Co Laois, spoke yesterday of how in July 2022 “our world was turned upside down when our little girl was in a tragic accident and four days later passed away in Temple Street Hospital”.

Speaking at the launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week in Dublin’s Mansion House, her mother revealed the heartbreak of when they “were told Hannah was brain-stem dead and there was no hope for her recovery”.

“When we realised we weren’t getting the miracle we all so desperately hoped for that week, we made the profound decision to donate our little girl’s organs.

“For us, it meant if even just one family weren’t put into the situation we were in, then that’s enough – but our little Hannah went on to save four families.

“Hannah’s little heart was donated to a little boy, a part of her liver to a premature baby, her small bowel and hemi-colon to another small boy, and her kidneys to a young mammy.

“She became the miracle that those four families hoped for, for so long, and that brings us some peace.

“To think there are parts of our little girl working away in other people is a surreal feeling at times.

“All the staff in Temple Street were amazing during our days up there and nothing was ever too much for them and the care Hannah was given was exceptional.”

The couple have since had another child, Tom, and “will ensure that her baby brother knows about her courageous deed when he is older”.

The Kealy family gave their support to the Irish Kidney Association’s appeal for people to let their families know they wish to donate their organ when they die.

Noreen Murphy, from Macroom, Co Cork, also told the remarkable story of how she woke up after being in an induced coma to be told she had received a liver transplant.

“Life pre-transplant was of near uniformly good health and [there were] no known diagnoses. My most recent memory was of handing a letter to the receptionist at Tallaght Hospital several weeks earlier after being referred by my GP for a scan of my gallbladder.”

She later learned doctors had found an issue with her liver and sent her to St Vincent’s Hospital.

“I was placed in an induced coma and from here was placed on the super-urgent transplant list as my time was running out.”

When she woke, the doctors said: “‘Welcome back, Noreen.

“You are in the intensive care unit in St Vincent’s Hospital, you’ve been in a coma and have had an emergency liver transplant and everything is going to be OK.”

She expressed gratitude to a selfless family in the UK, who, when faced with the ultimate tragedy, chose to save other families, whom they would never know.

Others who received organs spoke of how they were in a race against time before their transplant and how their life has been transformed.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said a new law – which will mean every adult is presumed to be an organ donor when they die, unless they opt out or their family objects – will come into force before the end of the year.

Families will continue to be consulted, he added.

This year’s Organ Donor Awareness Week will take place from April 20 to 27 and is organised by the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) in association with the HSE’s Organ Donation Transplant Ireland (ODTI).

The IKA said that by sharing your wishes when you are in good health you are helping your family to act on your behalf in the event of you being a potential organ donor.

It said that by requesting an organ donor card (www.ika.ie/donorcard), a person is letting the 600 or more people who are currently waiting for “the call” know that there are others thinking of them.

Carol Moore, IKA chief executive said the law will allow for the first altruistic living donation in Ireland, where the donor does not know the recipient.

Last year, 282 organ transplant operations were carried out in Ireland – 32 more than in 2022, thanks to the generosity of the families of 95 deceased donors and 30 living kidney donors.

“For us it meant if even just one family weren’t put into the situation we were in, then that’s enough”