Two doctors who work together in a busy medical practice in Salthill, Galway took their Hippocratic Oath to the extreme when one donated a kidney to the other last year.
Mother of three, Dr Ruth Smith (46), originally from Douglas, Cork and Dr Noel Howard (39), a Galway native and father of three, underwent their living donor kidney transplant at Beaumont Hospital in September 2016. The pair are sharing their story in support of Organ Donor Awareness Week 2017 (April 1-8).
Working together for close to a decade their personal lives also had come to overlap more and more. Socialising with their spouses and having three young children each they regularly found themselves sharing common interests.
Dr Smith said: “When I was in my mid-twenties I was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease and I knew that it was probable that dialysis treatment was coming down the tracks.
“I took control of my condition and managed to stave off dialysis until the beginning of last year when my kidney function had deteriorated to a point where it needed intervention.
“I then started to undergo peritoneal dialysis which I took through the night for eight hours at a time. By nature I am a positive person and I was content that while I was feeling quite tired, I was able to continue doing what I love to do, caring for my patients.
“I was determined that my health would not impact on my children as I continued to bring them to and from school and their activities. However, I did worry about the unknown and how my kidney condition would progress and that if I became very ill how it might impact on my family life and financial obligations which my husband and myself were committed to. However we were optimistic and getting on with life.”
Ruth shared the news with work colleague Noel that she would have to go onto dialysis and was in need of a kidney transplant.
“Within weeks of me telling him, Noel and his wife Róisín had reached a decision together and told me that Noel would go forward to be screened for living donation. Obviously this came as a huge surprise to me and myself and my husband Alan were completely overwhelmed by their profound act of kindness.”
Ruth’s husband Alan had gone forward but was not deemed to be a compatible donor. However, Noel was deemed to be compatible after rigorous testing including blood and tissue typing as well as psychological assessment. The transplant went ahead at Beaumont Hospital last September.
For the rest of this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week’s paper here, or download the app for Android or iPhone.
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