A 33-strong Irish team is heading to Sweden this week to take part in the 18th World Transplant Games, writes MICHELLE McDONAGH
A TEAM of 33 Irish transplant recipients ranging in age from nine to over 70 years will travel to Gothenburg in Sweden later this week to take part in the 18th World Transplant Games. The Irish team will be among 1,100 athletes from more than 50 countries participating in the biennial event which runs from Friday to June 24th.
The woman in charge of the medical care of the Irish athletes – who have all received major organ transplants including heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas – is team doctor, Dr Yvonne Ryan.
It’s a big responsibility, but one the nephrology registrar at Beaumont Hospital should be more than capable of handling after her baptism of fire as medical director of the European Transplant and Dialysis Games, which took place in Dublin last year.
“When I was asked by the Irish Kidney Association to be medical director last year, it was my first time ever doing anything like that and I didn’t realise what a massive logistical task I had taken on.
“There were 350 athletes from 24 countries participating in the games, the vast majority of whom had organ transplants. Less than 100 of the rest were on dialysis, so there was a lot of co-ordination with the other countries involved,” says Ryan.
Fortunately, there were no major serious incidents at the 2010 Dublin event apart from a number of fractures and some sports-related musculoskeletal injuries that were dealt with by the team physio, Clare Hogan.
Ryan says: “I’m really looking forward to the world games as team doctor, and not the head honcho on the medical side. There will be far less pressure and responsibility, but I still have a lot of things to think about from the kidney and transplant point of view.”
With the temperatures in Sweden expected to reach up to 30 degrees, the heat is one concern for the athletes, particularly for kidney disease patients who must stay hydrated.
Ensuring that the team members keep well protected from the sun with high-factor creams and long sleeves is another big issue for Ryan as the immuno-suppressant medication that transplant patients must take to keep their bodies from rejecting the organs lowers their immune response.
Her kit will also include plenty of anti-travel sickness medication for the journey home, which includes a boat trip from Gothenburg to Copenhagen, and extra immuno-suppressant medication in case of any delays.
The criteria for entry to the World Transplant Games is that all participants must have had their transplanted organs for a year, must have stable transplant function and must be signed off by the consultant who normally looks after them.
All of the athletes have worked hard over the past year to get fit for the various sporting events they are participating in, says Hogan, who works at Cork University Hospital, and was the Irish team physio at the last World Transplant Games in 2009 and at the last two European Transplant and Dialysis Games.
She expects to be dealing mainly with acute muscle injuries such as calf strains, hamstrings, shoulder dislocations, wrist sprains and foot pain. She will work closely with Ryan and the team manager Colin White over the duration of the games.
“In the four years that I’ve been physio for the Irish team, there haven’t been any major injuries thankfully. All of the athletes work hard at getting fit for the games and they know their own bodies and how far they can push themselves. Sometimes, I do have to advise people not to compete if they have a bad muscle injury, which is obviously very disappointing for an athlete who had trained all year.”
The youngest of the 33 transplant recipients on the 2011 Irish team is nine-year-old Oisin O’Gorman, from Co Waterford, who is the recipient of a kidney donated by his father. The oldest member of the team is “70-plus” Eamon Malone, from Co Cavan, who has also had a kidney transplant.
Three of the team members are double organ recipients: Liam Duffy from Co Mayo, who had a heart and double lung transplant; Elaine McGuire from Co Kildare, who is a liver and kidney transplant recipient; and Bridie Nicholson from Co Sligo, who had a kidney and pancreas transplant.
For many years, there has been no member of the Irish team under 18 but this year, there are four younger members including Oisin and three 17 year olds: Megan Fahy from Co Sligo, Robbie Lyons from Co Laois and Eoin Hurley from Co Waterford.
This year’s team also includes 28-year-old Liza Nikkinen from Stockholm, who now lives in Naas and regards herself as “part Irish” after she received an emergency liver transplant at St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin a few years ago.
For information on organ donation, see the Irish Kidney Association website at ika.ie or Locall 1890-543639. For organ donor cards, freetext DONOR to 50050.
