Lung transplant woman to leave hospital today

The woman who underwent the first lung transplant operation in the State two week ago is expected to be discharged from hospital…

The woman who underwent the first lung transplant operation in the State two week ago is expected to be discharged from hospital today.

The woman, who is in her 50s and from Limerick, is also due to comment publicly for the first time about her transplant when, following her discharge, she attends a scheduled press conference at Dublin's Mater hospital.

She underwent the operation at the national lung transplant unit at the Mater hospital in the early hours of May 12th.

The operation took approximately three hours.

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The woman is understood to have been waiting a number of months for a suitable donor lung to become available.

She is believed to have been suffering from emphysema, a condition in which the lungs lose their normal elasticity, leading to severe breathing problems. It is the most common condition for which a lung transplant is required.

The transplant was undertaken by a multidisciplinary team led by Dr Jim Egan, consultant respiratory physician and lead transplant physician, and Mr Freddie Wood and Mr Jim McCarthy, cardiothoracic surgeons.

The operation was welcomed as a significant milestone both for the Mater hospital, which also carried out the State's first heart transplant in 1985, and for Irish medicine.