'I felt like my life was over. I thought to myself, I walked in and now I won't walk out'

A KELLS man who was forced to have his leg amputated after contracting a severe case of sepsis while waiting on a kidney transplant says he feels “lucky to be alive.”

Tony ‘Toto’ Lynch (60), attended his GP in 2018 following a period of feeling unwell. After being referred to the Mater Hospital in Dublin tests confirmed that he had kidney failure leaving Tony shocked.

Then while preparing to be placed on the transplant list Tony was hit with another blow when medics discovered four blockages in his coronary arteries and underwent a quadruple bypass in a matter of days spending 38 weeks in hospital during this time.

It wasn't to be Tony's last shock diagnosis after an infection in his foot developed into deadly sepsis leaving the Kells man with no other option than to have his leg amputated below the knee.

“In 2018 I noticed I wasn't feeling good, I had put on a lot of weight and I was finding it very hard to breath so I knew there was something wrong,” said Tony.

“I went to GP who sent me to the Mater Hospital and they realised that I had kidney failure,” he added.

“It was a massive shock, I couldn't believe it.”

Doctors put Tony on dialysis immediately and removed a staggering 11 litres of fluid from his vital organs.

“There was fluid in my legs, chest, lungs, it was everywhere,” said Tony.

“After about two or three months I found myself better with the dialysis so I enquired about going on the transplant list,” he added.

“There are a lot of protocols, you have to do a serious amount of tests one of which was an angiogram where they found blockages in the arteries to my heart and I was told I had to have a quadruple bypass.

“They said it was a godsend that I did come in because I could have just dropped dead from a heart attack.”

Tony's heart surgery was thankfully successful and along with recovering was working on becoming well enough to get a place on the transplant list as he explains:

“I was waiting a year but eventually I got on the list and I had the phone by my side 24/7 hoping I'd get the call but I was picking up a lot of infections along the way. I would do a stint of maybe a month in hospital on IV antibiotics and that was a regular thing it could be three or four times a year.

“Towards the end of last year I was getting a lot of infections, I was getting chest infections and I had two bouts of pneumonia.

“Over Christmas I never felt better and then in the new year I started picking up chest infections and I thought here we go again.”

Tony attended a dialysis appointment one Saturday morning in the Renal Unit in Drogheda but medics had to stop the session half way through due to him being so unwell.

“My coughing and breathing was very bad so they called an ambulance and sent me to the Mater,” explains the Kells resident.

“Three different doctors together told me that I had an infection on my foot and that they were going to put plan together the following week,” he added.

“A week later I looked at my foot, it was a totally different foot it was going completely black. They came back on Valentine's Day and the three of them stood at the end of the bed and said Anthony you cannot let that get up your leg because if sepsis gets into your organs you won't survive and that he only option was amputation.

“They amputated it on 17th February below my knee.”

Tony who is a founding member of Kells Road Races is now looking to the future and hoping to be approved to have a prosthetic leg fitted but admits there were some dark times in the aftermath of the surgery.

“I woke up and the next day I wouldn't look down and eventually I looked down and I just cried,” said Tony.

“I went into myself, I felt like my life was over. I thought to myself, I walked in and now I won't walk out.

“I wasn't eating, I wasn't answering the phone to my family, I just shut down, I just didn't care anymore.

“Sometimes you forget and at night you are lying in the bed and you get up the next morning and realise you haven't got your leg.

“But they had a good chat with me and said the one thing I needed to do was to be positive. I got a wheelchair and did rehab here in the hospital and learned how to get in and out of the wheelchair, how to get out of the bed, how to shower etc.

“It's not always easy but I'm positive about getting a prosthetic leg and working towards that. I have had three major health scares in the last few years but I'm looking forward now and I'm just really grateful to still be alive.

“I could sit and feel sorry for myself but that is not going to get me anywhere.

“Since this has all happened I just have the attitude that you need to live for today because you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.”

A fundraising campaign has been started to help towards adaptions to Tony's home in Kells with over €4,000 being raised so far.

“I'd like to thank everyone who donated, their support is much appreciated, everyone in Kells has just been brilliant,” said Tony.