A Mayo mum has said her family is “truly indebted” to the staff at Temple Street Children’s Hospital after her four-year-old daugther received a life changing kidney transplant there last year.
Runagh Burke and young Kate joined the Temple Street Children’s Hospital this week to celebrate its busiest year ever for kidney transplants.
The hospital has performed 101 transplants on children in the last 12 years, and 19 children like Kate across Ireland received transplants last year.
Ms Burke said the transplant has “transformed life for Kate and for our family”.
“Kate is happy and healthy and we have so much more time to spend together now as a family,” she said.
Ms Burke couldn’t speak highly enough about the staff at the hospital.
“We are truly indebted to all the staff at Temple Street and of course to the organ donor and their family.
“[They] have been like a family to us,” she said. “They’ve known Kate since she was three days old.
“Through the dialysis, the transplant and the aftercare, they’ve always been there for us when we needed them - at any time of the day or night.”
Temple Street Children’s Hospital is now calling on more people to carry donor cards to make transplants like Kate’s possible.
Dr Michael Riordan, consultant pediatric nephrologist, Temple Street Children’s Hospital, said that when a child’s kidneys fail, or when they are born without normal kidney function, it is “devastating” for them.
“The kidney transplantation can be a means to regain a normal life without the rigorous routine of dialysis,” he explained.
“The results of kidney transplantation performed at Temple Street for the 101 children over the last 12 years have been outstanding.
“Our transplant service has one of the best patient survival records in the world, and long term outcomes for the transplantation are excellent by international standards,” he continued.
Organ donor cards are available from the Irish Kidney Association (IKA ) by free texting DONOR to 50050, going online to www.ika.ie/card or by lo call to 1890 543 639.
