Organ donation – giving life in midst of death

A trainee Galway midwife brought the national launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week to tears as she spoke about the positive impact donating their mother’s organs had created within her family during their devastating grief.

Chloe Greer, 21, who is from Claremorris, Co Mayo, and based at University Hospital Galway, recalled that she was just eleven when her mother Martina died very unexpectedly from an undetected brain aneurism.

Their father sat both herself and her 17-year-old sister Nicole to discuss organ donation following the tragedy.

“It was never something you really think about…We all immediately said yes. Why wouldn’t we? Why wouldn’t we agree that our mother wanted this wish fulfilled for her. She had her organ donor card, she knew what she wanted, so we said yes to her choice,” she told the launch at the Mansion House in Dublin.

Families who had received the organs sent cards and letters anonymously to thank her family for their decision to donate her organs.

“In the weeks during our grief, we read these letters and these cards. We didn’t know any names. We just were so humbled by these people outpouring their stories of their journeys of seeking an organ and how our choice to just say yes had changed these people’s lives and improved their quality of life and given them a second choice of life and given them ten extra years which is amazing,” she recalled.

One story stuck out more than all the others, the recipient of their mother’s heart, a young child.

“An eight-year-old girl who her parents did not know if this was it for her and if they were going to have to say goodbye to their daughter. And just when all hope seemed lost, they received the phone call that would change all of their lives forever.

“She’s 18 today. That’s insane to think about. That somewhere out there these parents have gotten ten extra years with their daughter, who was only a few years younger than me was when I lost my mother.”

Chloe said she could not even begin to describe the comfort and the joy that the organ donation experience has brought her family in the past ten years.

“To hear the stories of what happens to the people who receive these organs from people like my mother, who pass away unfortunately but make the choice to donate their organs, it has been nothing short of a superhero story.

“To know that one woman could save five lives and affect five separate families, to know that someone has gotten ten extra years with their brother, their sister, their son, their daughter, their mother, their father, is nothing short of a miracle.

“I am so honoured to speak today on behalf of my mother. I cannot begin to describe how thankful I am for the letters and the cards we receive every year. And although this time of grief and this loss is tragic and has impacted upon us and our lives, irreversibly so, I will also look on this as a positive experience that has changed my life for the better.”

Last year there were 171 transplants carried out as a result of deceased organ donations, up from 162 in 2020. Patients also received organs as a result of donations from people who were alive in 2022, up seven on the year before.

There are just under 600 people active on waiting lists for organ transplants including heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas.

This year’s campaign features 32 organ recipients, who between them have gained over 400 years of extra life since their transplant.

Members of the public are urged to carry an organ donor card, download the app and permit Code 115 to be included on their driver’s licence. They should also let their families know about their wish to be an organ donor.

Donor Cards can be requested by visiting the Irish Kidney Association website, phone the Irish Kidney Association on 01-620 5306 or free text the word DONOR to 50050.