Baby"s plight underscores importance of organ donation

The importance of organ donation was highlighted in the past week by Bettystown mum Nicola Meegan, whose baby son Cillian, began dialysis when he was just two-weeks old. Nine-month-old Cillian is a son of Nicola Meegan and Ciaran Nolan and is now home with his parents in The Anchorage, Bettystown, but spent the first six months of his life in hospital and has had 12 operations. Ms Meegan said she did not know there was anything wrong with her baby when she was pregnant and that Cillian was rushed straight to ICU when he was born because he had breathing difficulties. They did not know what was wrong with him and he was rushed by ambulance to Temple Street Children"s Hospital in Dublin where an ultrasound showed that he had a blockage below his bladder that was damaging his kidneys and bladder. Ms Meegan explained that doctors tried to unblock the blockage to get his kidneys working but this was unsuccessful and he had began dialysis when he was two weeks old, the youngest baby ever to have dialysis. However, the dialysis caused problems and the baby"s bowel burst. At this stage, Ms Meegan and her partner were told that Cillian might not survive. He had a number of operations and, together with drugs, his kidney function picked up but he was back on dialysis again last September. Nicola and Ciaran trained for two and a half months to learn how to perform dialysis at home and Cillian was finally let home on 23rd December last. 'He has been at home ever since and everything is going really well. Cillian is off dialysis at the moment and one of his kidneys is managing to work with the kidney failure drugs,' said Ms Meegan. She added that his kidney is 'spluttering', meaning it is doing a bit of work but that he will need a transplant when he is older. For the six months Cillian was in hospital, Nicola said it was 'hard work' but they had to get on with it and that they took every day as it came. 'We are glad to have him still with us and to have him home,' she added. Children can accept an adult kidney from the age of three and Ms Meegan said they are looking at the option of a live donor - where she would give one of her kidneys to Cillian. This involves six months of tests but she cannot begin testing until Cillian gets on the donor waiting list and he has to be a certain weight before he can go on that list. Ms Meegan said one mother at the hospital had gone through six months of tests but was not a match. Cillian"s bloods are checked every month to see how his kidney is working and doctors are hoping that he might get to nine or 10 years of age before he will need a transplant, but his kidney function can be unpredictable. Thankfully, Cillian is currently off dialysis as his kidney function has picked up since his last operation. Organ Donor Awareness Week is currently under way and runs until this Saturday, 4th April. The annual awareness campaign is organised by the Irish Kidney Association and supported by the Irish Donor Network to encourage the public to carry organ donor cards and to make their families aware of their wishes if a tragedy happened. There are currently over 600 people in Ireland awaiting life-saving transplant operations, while there are almost 2,400 people enjoying extended life as a result of organ transplants.