During Organ Donor Awareness Week (10-17 May ), one Galway family is sharing their remarkable journey to highlight the life-changing impact of organ donation. Denise Fahy Rabbitte donated a portion of her liver to her son Iarla in 2022 (when he was five years old ) which saved his live.
Soon after Iarla Rabbitt from Colemanstown in Galway, was born, his parents Denise and Stephen learned he had Biliary Atresia, a rare and serious liver condition affecting newborns. At just two years old, he was placed on the liver transplant list, and the long wait for a donor began.
Iarla was under the care of Crumlin Children’s Hospital in Dublin, but because paediatric liver transplants are not carried out in Ireland, his case had to be managed through coordination between the skillful team at Crumlin Hospital and the transplant hospital in Kings College Hospital in London.
For three years, his family waited as their son’s health deteriorated, hoping for a call that never came.
Eventually, after initial resistance from the medical team, they agreed to assess Denise as a living donor. Despite being diagnosed with haemochromatosis which is a condition that causes iron overload and can affect liver health, she was approved after rigorous testing.
“I knew I had to try,” she says. “Even with the risks, the idea that I could give Iarla a future was more powerful than any fear. It’s an amazing feeling as a mother to know I could help.”
In 2022, the transplant was carried out in the UK, and Iarla received a portion of his mother Denise’s liver. They spent several weeks recovering in the UK. It is understood that Iarla’s case is the only known instance in the world of a living liver donation from a person with haemochromatosis, a fact that makes their story even more extraordinary.
Now nine years old, Iarla is thriving. He’s the third of four children, with an older brother and sister Paraic (14 ) and Delia (12 ) and brother Donagh (age 2 ) who arrived 2 years after the transplant, another source of joy in their family’s journey.
“Seeing Iarla now, healthy and full of life, makes everything we went through worth it. He makes us proud every single day,” Denise says. “Last summer, he joined other Irish transplant children and adults at the British Transplant Games.
“While he won a medal for table tennis, it was incredible to see so many children and adults there, celebrating their second chance at life. It was an emotional and uplifting experience, seeing so many people who had been given a second chance of life through organ donation,” she added.
The family credits the staff at Temple Street for their dedication and care in Iarla’s early years.
“We owe them so much for keeping him alive through it all. And the team in the UK gave him not just expert care, but a future.”
She adds that the journey wouldn’t have been possible without others.
“I couldn’t have done it without the support of my husband Stephen, our families and friends, and the incredible community who helped us keep things normal for our young daughter while we were at Temple Street or recovering in the UK.”
Now, during Organ Donor Awareness Week, their family hopes that by sharing their story, others might be inspired to consider organ donation, a gift that can truly change a life. For more information on the awareness campaign or to obtain an organ donor card visit www.ika.ie/donorweek/
