A Belfast boy who inspired a campaign to change organ donation laws in Northern Ireland will be “unstoppable” now he has received a new heart, his father has said.
Successful transplant for Dáithí
Mairtin Mac Gabhann said Dáithí, nine, who was born with rare hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), will be able to “make the absolute most of life”. Dáithí had been on the waiting list for a heart transplant since 2018.
On Tuesday the family said on social media that Dáithí had received a successful transplant. Mr Mac Gabhann said he was in the early days of recovery but that physical signs of improvement were there.
Father describes joy at son's recovery
He told the Press Association: “As soon as (Dáithí) came back from the transplant, even though he was hooked up to wires and ventilators, one thing was very clear: his pink lips, his pink fingers, his warm hands, his warm feet, his warm toes – just something that he’s never had before.
“His freckles were just blowing, but when he was blue, you couldn’t even see all this. We always knew he had freckles, but I mean you want to see how popping these freckles are. It’s just unbelievable.”
Hope for the future
With more rehabilitation and tests ahead, Mr Mac Gabhann said he hoped “this is the start of an unbelievable journey for Dáithí”. “No matter what happens, even just having the hope of that gift, the hope of that future, is just – it’s something special,” he said. “So it’s to be celebrated, I’m just so, like overwhelmingly grateful.”
The family found out there was a potential donor for Dáithí and were in the air within a number of hours, flying to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. Mr Mac Gabhann expressed his “extreme gratitude” to the staff there, saying “they are the ones who have given Dáithí hope and they’re the reason we’re here”.
Dáithí's Law and campaigning
Mr Mac Gabhann and the rest of his family campaigned for years for a move towards a soft opt-out law and to promote organ donation. In June 2023 Dáithí’s Law came into effect, bringing Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK.
The Organ and Tissue Donation (Deemed Consent) legislation changed the way consent is granted. Adults are now deemed to have given consent as a potential organ donor after their death, unless they choose to opt out or are in an excluded group.
A long wait and a new heart
He said Dáithí, an avid Liverpool supporter, has demoted Mo Salah in favour of their new “Egyptian King”, Dr Mohamed Nassar, the heart surgeon who carried out the operation. The family have had no false alarms in the years their son has been on the waiting list.
“You have to remember as well that Dáithí was also suspended from the list a few weeks ago, so he’s not long back on the list either,” Mr Mac Gabhann said. “So just a long day, to go and retrieve the heart, and you don’t know if it’s going to go through, and then once they say that the heart’s good to go, and we’re doing it, everything was go. Within 20 minutes of that conversation Dáithí was sleeping, getting the gift of a new heart.”
'Unstoppable' with a new lease on life
Mr Mac Gabhann said he has always viewed his son’s condition as a “gift” that has given their family “the appreciation for life, to make memories”. “So what we now have is that gift – still – of how fragile life can be, and with that mentality in life, along with the opportunities that this new heart will bring, this kid’s going to be unstoppable, I think,” he said.
“There’s the potential of that, as in he has that never-waste-a-day attitude and make the absolute most of life, and now he has actually the potential to do a lot more in life and live as close a life to normal as possible.”
Mr Mac Gabhann was made an MBE in 2024 and Dáithí was awarded the freedom of Belfast in 2023 for their campaigning work.
