‘Part of me died when my kidney donation to ill husband failed’
A WOMAN whose attempt to donate a kidney to her husband ended in failure has sued the hospital. Denise Ryan, 51, claims she was psychologically injured by the process and had not been treated with reasonable care by the hospital Ms Ryan from Ballypatrick, Clonmel, Co.Tipperary, made the decision to donate to Pat Ryan as he had been on a waiting list for 22 months. Their counsel, Jeremy Maher SC, said Mr Ryan, 56, had ‘waited and waited’ for the phone call telling him there was a matching donor, but it never came. Mrs Ryan’s left kidney was harvested for her husband on January 20, 2014. Mr Maher said the case was all about the failure of the transplant procedure. In the end, Mr Ryan underwent a further transplant procedure on January 29, when he received a kidney from a deceased donor. This operation was a success, Mr Maher confirmed. He said Mr Ryan had previously suffered kidney problems since the 1990s. But he said Mrs Ryan had been devastated by her unsuccessful donation, having been previously told that she was a suitable match. Mr Maher said: ‘Transplant failure can leave the donor suffering psychological injury. It has happened in this case with devastating consequences for the Ryans.’ When she woke up after the operation to harvest her kidney, Mr Maher said she was told there had been difficulties due to a ‘mismatch in size’ of the kidney. This had come ‘as a complete shock and caused immediate anxiety’, he said. And he said she felt she had not been given any suitable explanation from the hospital as to what had gone wrong. He told the court that taking a donation from a living person was a routine procedure. But he said that one of the disadvantages of the method was that the donor had lost a kidney, and was exposed to feeling the effects of failure if the transplant was not a success. ‘Denise felt a part of her died. She was concerned her husband was going to die. She felt she had let him down. She thought her kidney was going to live on in her husband.’ He said his side contended the procedure should not have failed as there were no contra indications. Denise Ryan claims she now suffers from post traumatic stress disorder. Her legal papers state that she became depressed and ‘suffered grief for the loss of her organ’. She claimed she had not been treated with reasonable care and consideration. Mr Ryan was also bringing a case, counsel said, claiming that he had undergone unnecessary procedures, and that he had suffered stress, distress and upset. Liability for both claims has been denied by the Beaumont Hospital Board. Pat Ryan told the court yesterday he was very grateful for the second transplant but his wife was devastated over what happened. ‘It was a huge blow to her that I had another person’s kidney in me,’ he said. In evidence, Mr Ryan said when he woke up after the first transplant from his wife, he was told the procedure had not been successful. After the second transplant he felt good and described the feeling as like ‘a foal racing away in a field’. He said his wife felt she had failed, but he believed she had ‘got the ball rolling’ for him. The case continues before Mr Justice Kevin Cross.
‘Not treated with reasonable care’