Andy Kavanagh was told life expectancy post-transplant in the 1986 was normally one or two years
‘My donor was the same age as I was when he died’: Ireland’s longest-living heart transplant recipient gives thanks for second chanceNow, 38 years after his transplant, Mr Kavanagh said he never thought he would be where he is today. Photograph: Conor McCabe Photography
“I said he must have got that wrong. It must be Mr Kavanagh over there,” he said. “Transplant was a new thing, but you weren’t hearing it that often so you knew it wasn’t an everyday occurrence. I knew I was on a slippery road.” “There were two donors became available and I had infections and so you just think it’s going to happen then. You wait for it to happen, all of a sudden you think you’re going to get a chance, and then it comes back to say ‘sorry Andy, you have an infection’. And you’re back on the wheel again,” he said.
Despite this, Mr Kavanagh said he has lived a “long and happy life” and has been able to “do all the things I’ve wanted to do”. His three biggest achievements, he said, is getting married to his wife, having a daughter and having grandchildren. Over the last decade, the programme has been expanded and now includes mechanical heart pumps, which can be implanted in patients awaiting transplant or those not eligible for transplant to keep them healthier and living full active lives for as long as possible.
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