Westmeath brothers celebrate 50th anniversary of life-saving kidney transplant

by Graham Dockery

A crowd of family, friends, and well-wishers joined Baylin farmers Seamus and Sean Fitzpatrick at Egan's Bar, Mount Temple, on Saturday night last to raise money for the Irish Kidney Association and commemorate an operation that saved Sean’s life and made history in the process.

There was a time when Sean Fitzpatrick didn't know if he'd live to see his 18th birthday. Sick since he was nine years old, it wasn't until he was 16 and was taken to hospital after a car crash that doctors found out just how badly his kidneys were failing.

"Being 16, I didn't think much of it," he told the Westmeath Independent. "But as time went on I really found out how bad things were. I was about three years going up to Jervis Street for treatment, but it wasn't getting any better."

Seven years later, Sean was told that he needed a kidney transplant. The first such procedure in Ireland had been carried out in 1964, and the process was far from straightforward at the time.

A healthy organ had to be sourced from a close relative of the same blood type and with compatible tissue, and even then there was no guarantee that Sean's body would accept the replacement kidney.

Sean's younger brother, Dominic, was too young to donate a kidney. His two sisters were also deemed ineligible. However, when older sibling Seamus was tested, he was told that he was a match.

"I was getting worse at the time, and rather than putting me on dialysis they brought Seamus up to ask him if he'd go ahead with the transplant earlier than expected," Sean recalled.

For Seamus, who was 22 at the time, trading a kidney for his brother's life was an easy decision. "They told me that having the one [kidney] was the same as having the two, so it made no difference to me," he said.

Asked whether he was nervous while undergoing preparations for surgery, Seamus replied "I wasn't at all."

The operation was the seventh successful kidney transplant in Irish history, and the first carried out without the prior use of a dialysis machine. When Sean woke up in intensive care, however, his life still hung in the balance.

If a patient’s body is going to reject a transplanted kidney, it typically does so within seven days, he explained.

"I got worse and worse for about a week, and they were thinking of taking it out, until one day the surgeon came down and said that it hadn't got any worse since yesterday, and they were delighted with that," he said.

"I was home then, and I never had to go back to the hospital for anything to do with my kidneys," he said. "It’s as good as the day it was put in."

Kidney transplantation was in its infancy at the time, and Sean still counts his blessings that the procedure was a success. "There were lots of people who weren’t so lucky. At the time they didn’t know an awful lot about it, but it worked out fierce well for us altogether."

Fifty years after the lifesaving operation, both brothers are healthy and happy. Both went on to get married, and 74-year-old Sean has two adult children while 72-year-old Seamus has four.

"Growing up, we were always aware" of what Seamus had done for his brother, his daughter, Kathy, remarked. "As we got older he always told us stories about the nurses and the great care he had in the hospital, about the surgeons and all of that."

"I think all of us in the family are signed up for organ donation," she laughed.

For the Fitzpatrick family, Saturday’s event was an opportunity to celebrate the remarkable story of the brothers’ lives, and to raise some much-needed funds for the Irish Kidney Association.

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) affects one in 10 people in Ireland, with a recent Trinity College study revealing that 98% of those affected are unaware they have the condition. Among the over-50s, one in seven people suffers from CKD, and the disease is now on course to become the fifth-leading cause of death by 2040.

On Thursday March 13, the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) marked World Kidney Day by launching its national ‘1 in 10 People’ campaign to highlight the often silent threat of kidney disease.

The campaign also draws attention to the fact that CKD can now be easily identified with a simple blood and urine test.

"This offers a real opportunity for early treatment which can slow down the disease or prevent its progression," the association said in a statement.

Without Seamus’ selfless decision, “we wouldn’t have Dad and we wouldn’t be here,” Kathy said. "So it’s important and we would encourage everyone who can and feels comfortable doing so to sign up to be an organ donor. You never know who you could be helping out."

An online fundraising campaign set up by Kathy for the IKA will remain open until May 12. Donations can be made at: idonate.ie/fundraiser/kathykathymaree1gmailcom11

* For more photos from Saturday's celebration in Egan's, Mount Temple, see this week's Westmeath Independent print edition