Organ donation by General Practitioner Dr Tim Galvin.  

A GP who spent his life caring for the health of his patients has helped save the lives of five people he never knew.

Since qualifying in 1979, Tim Galvin looked after patients in Sheffield , Huddersfield , Halifax and Bradford , where he worked in the Highfield Health Centre.

Then, at the beginning of this year, what should have been a relaxed weekend lunch turned into a nightmare.

“He was hard-working, a fit and fun-loving fifty year old,” says his partner, Kath Wallace. “He loved the outdoors and was an accomplished climber and keen sailor. We had a lifetime of happiness planned when on Sunday 31st January, only a week after sailing in the Atlantic , he had a massive and unexpected stroke. Losing consciousness quickly, he remained unresponsive until February 2nd when he died.”

Both Kath, an education consultant for Sheffield City Council, and Tim carried organ donor cards and had talked about organ donation: “He was a practical, down-to-earth Yorkshireman and felt there was no point in wasting anything! It was no surprise that he was registered as an organ donor. It only confirmed what a generous and loving man he was.”

Tim’s family, who had been keeping a vigil at his bedside at the intensive care unit of Hull Royal Infirmary, were all involved in discussing the donation he had pledged to make.

Kath was impressed by how the approach was made: “The hospital staff discussed transplantation very sensitively and each member of Tim’s family was given the time they needed to come to terms with what had happened. The consultants explained everything clearly and answered every question.”

Tim’s pledge to help others after his death meant that five life-saving transplant operations were performed and Kath is very grateful to Hull Royal Infirmary ICU and the Leeds transplant team for “creating this miracle”.

Kath recalls the comfort that news about these patients gave the family afterwards: “Like a gift from the gods, the letter arrived telling us of the people who had received Tim's organs. This is what matters: helping others and bringing life and hope - books, furniture, money all pale into insignificance compared to the gift of life.

"Knowing that other families, who were in despair, are now reunited, having fun and planning future happiness is the greatest comfort in these difficult times. Knowing that Tim helped life to go on for so many others is a small but shining light in the darkness of our grief.”

The patients who have benefited from Tim’s donation are a 19-year-old liver patient (the same age as Tim’s son, Oliver), a 54-year-old from Leeds, where Tim and his father trained in medicine, who received a kidney, as did a 49 year-old from Edinburgh, while a 27-year-old received his heart, and a father of three received his right lung.

“I really believe that knowing others have been given health and hope from what seems a hopeless situation is helping in this long and tangled process of grief,” says Kath.

To join the NHS Organ Donor Register call the Organ Donor Line on 0845 60 60 400 or visit www.uktransplant.nhs.uk

For further information or contact details, call NHS UK Transplant Communications on (0117) 975 7477.

 (22/6/05)