Source: Dublin People.A 12-YEAR-OLD girl from Cabra who is recovering from a kidney transplant has appealed to people to become organ donors so that other sick children can receive from the gift of life.
Lauren Devoy Carroll had her prayers answered in January when she got the call from Temple Street Hospital to say there was a kidney waiting for her.
The brave youngster, who has had 56 operations in her lifetime, had been in end stage renal failure since August 2008.
During the prolonged wait to receive a suitable kidney, Lauren received dialysis three times a week for 18 months and was restricted to just 650 millilitres of fluid pe r day.
The sixth class pupil left home for the first time last week to help launch this year’s Organ Donation campaign which began on March 27 and runs until April 3.
“I felt sick for a really long time but now I’m feeling much better,” she told Northside People.
“I was nervous when I first heard that I had a kidney. I worried that it wouldn’t be suitable but I also thought of the person who had just died and donated something that would save me.
“Only good can come from donating an organ so I think everyone should become a donor.”
Lauren, who lives on Kiltiernan Road, is now looking forward to getting back to school for the first time in over four months.
“I can’t wait,” she said.
“I’m really looking forward to going swimming, going on holidays and to eating chocolate at Easter.”
She added: “I wasn’t allowed to have more than 650 millilitres of fluid per day before but now I have to have no less than three litres which is a little bit hard because I’m really not used to drinking that much.”
Lauren also suffers from an extremely rare genetic condition known as Duplication of 3q, which is caused by having an extra pair of one of the body’s 46 chromosomes.
Doctors believe the renal failure was unconnected to her genetic condition, according to Lauren’s mother Gillian Devoy.
“She’s amazing and so incredibly good spirited,” she said.
“She just bounces right back from every operation she’s gone through.”
Lauren’s father Vinnie Carroll, an ambulance paramedic in Finglas, explained how he, Gillian and Lauren have been on “tender hooks” since August 2008 when Lauren was diagnosed with renal failure.
“Not many people may realise that the patients don’t just go on the transplant list and stay on it until they get their organ,” he said.
“Lauren was repeatedly taken off the list when she had the slightest of ailments – a cough or high temperature. The doctors just couldn’t risk it.
“She had to get dialysis three times a week which was difficult, but nowhere near as difficult as it could have been had we lived somewhere else in the country.
“We realised how lucky we were to live so close to Temple Street, especially when we met other kids who travelled from Wexford and Galway to Dublin three times a week for their dialysis.”
Vinnie described the thoughts that went through their minds when the hospital phoned early one January morning to say they had a potentially suitable kidney for Lauren.
“I kept praying that it would match and I think we all felt a mixture of apprehension and excitement,” he stated.
“One of the first things Lauren said was that she felt sorry for the family who had lost the donor. She’s so empathetic and has had to mature well beyond her years.
“We’ll never know who the donor was but we could never thank that person or their family enough.”
There are currently over 600 people in Ireland awaiting life saving transplant operations.
Last year, there were 154 deceased donor kidney transplants, 18 living donor transplant, 64 liver, 11 heart and four lung transplants. The number of deceased donors in 2009 was 90.
Lauren Devoy Carroll had her prayers answered in January when she got the call from Temple Street Hospital to say there was a kidney waiting for her.
The brave youngster, who has had 56 operations in her lifetime, had been in end stage renal failure since August 2008.
During the prolonged wait to receive a suitable kidney, Lauren received dialysis three times a week for 18 months and was restricted to just 650 millilitres of fluid pe r day.
The sixth class pupil left home for the first time last week to help launch this year’s Organ Donation campaign which began on March 27 and runs until April 3.
“I felt sick for a really long time but now I’m feeling much better,” she told Northside People.
“I was nervous when I first heard that I had a kidney. I worried that it wouldn’t be suitable but I also thought of the person who had just died and donated something that would save me.
“Only good can come from donating an organ so I think everyone should become a donor.”
Lauren, who lives on Kiltiernan Road, is now looking forward to getting back to school for the first time in over four months.
“I can’t wait,” she said.
“I’m really looking forward to going swimming, going on holidays and to eating chocolate at Easter.”
She added: “I wasn’t allowed to have more than 650 millilitres of fluid per day before but now I have to have no less than three litres which is a little bit hard because I’m really not used to drinking that much.”
Lauren also suffers from an extremely rare genetic condition known as Duplication of 3q, which is caused by having an extra pair of one of the body’s 46 chromosomes.
Doctors believe the renal failure was unconnected to her genetic condition, according to Lauren’s mother Gillian Devoy.
“She’s amazing and so incredibly good spirited,” she said.
“She just bounces right back from every operation she’s gone through.”
Lauren’s father Vinnie Carroll, an ambulance paramedic in Finglas, explained how he, Gillian and Lauren have been on “tender hooks” since August 2008 when Lauren was diagnosed with renal failure.
“Not many people may realise that the patients don’t just go on the transplant list and stay on it until they get their organ,” he said.
“Lauren was repeatedly taken off the list when she had the slightest of ailments – a cough or high temperature. The doctors just couldn’t risk it.
“She had to get dialysis three times a week which was difficult, but nowhere near as difficult as it could have been had we lived somewhere else in the country.
“We realised how lucky we were to live so close to Temple Street, especially when we met other kids who travelled from Wexford and Galway to Dublin three times a week for their dialysis.”
Vinnie described the thoughts that went through their minds when the hospital phoned early one January morning to say they had a potentially suitable kidney for Lauren.
“I kept praying that it would match and I think we all felt a mixture of apprehension and excitement,” he stated.
“One of the first things Lauren said was that she felt sorry for the family who had lost the donor. She’s so empathetic and has had to mature well beyond her years.
“We’ll never know who the donor was but we could never thank that person or their family enough.”
There are currently over 600 people in Ireland awaiting life saving transplant operations.
Last year, there were 154 deceased donor kidney transplants, 18 living donor transplant, 64 liver, 11 heart and four lung transplants. The number of deceased donors in 2009 was 90.
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