Hearts offered by donors to the National Cardiac Transplant Unit at the Mater Hospital, Dublin, have been turned away because of staff or bed shortages. In the latest edition of Magill magazine, an article states that since the beginning of 1996, 14 donor hearts had been turned away and last March, the hearts of three young men killed in tragic circumstances were turned away because the country's top transplant surgeons had to attend a medical conference.
Last night, Mr Maurice Neligan, director of the National Cardiac Transplant Programme, confirmed to The Irish Times that staff had attended the annual general meeting of the Society of Cardio-Thoracic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland.
He said, however, that they used the three days to renovate and install new equipment in the unit's two operating theatres. It would have had to be done at some stage so they used the opportunity then.
It was true that from time to time donor hearts had to be turned away. The problem was that there had to be two teams of surgeons. One team would take the heart from the donor and the other team would then transplant it to the new recipient.
"You need qualified surgeons to harvest the heart and this could happen anywhere in the country. We do have staff problems and from time to time there are no beds in intensive care," Mr Neligan said.
Donor hearts that could not be used in this country were offered to England.
"For 10 years, I have been making the point that we need more resources. Also, there are a horrific number of deaths because patients do die before a suitable transplant can be found. Certain conditions are needed, for instance a patient may not be the right blood group for a donor heart."
The hospital had only three heart transplant surgeons to conduct all the unit's work. They also carried out other cardiac surgery and thoracic work.