Organ donation: Kidney transplant patient saved by police

With a one-in-a-100,000 chance of finding a compatible kidney transplant match, Eoin Madden almost fainted when he received a call to say a suitable donor had been found.

The odds were greatly against him due to the high level of antibodies in his system - a by-product of having undergone two previous transplants.

The Galway man thought he had overcome all hurdles but then his car broke down just as he crossed the Irish border on the way to the operation in Belfast.

But all hope was not lost thanks to a special taxi service - courtesy of the police.

Eoin was first diagnosed with IgA nephropathy when he was in his late teens.

The condition effectively means that part of his immune system attacks his kidneys.

At the time, he was told it probably would not affect him too much until later in life.

But during an annual check up at the age of 21, he was told he needed to start dialysis straight away.

He travelled to hospital three times a week for the best part of a year before he was told a cadaver kidney had been found.

After a successful operation, the organ worked well for seven years before the initial condition reappeared.

A second deceased donor match was found for Eoin but he lost kidney function very suddenly when he contracted pneumonia.

Eoin was put back on dialysis and was able to have the treatment at home, meaning he could spend time with his young family.

He said while dialysis works "it takes a toll on your body, and you get more sick and more tired as years go on".

His siblings offered to donate but were unsuitable.

Eoin's wife, Michelle, also put herself forward as a living donor.

"She's not a living match, which we expected," explained Eoin, but they found another option.

"The UK has this fantastic scheme called the Shared Exchange Scheme, where Michelle could give a kidney to someone in the UK and their partner could give a kidney to me, if they could find a donor to match me.

"The doctors said that because the UK has a larger population, there was a better chance of a match."

They went to Belfast to meet the team at Belfast City Hospital and were accepted on to the scheme.

Shortly before Halloween, Eoin was in a shop buying decorations when he received a call about a match.

"I could've just fainted there and then," he said.

"I went home and told Michelle and they'd called her as well."

On 16 December, as Michelle was wheeled down to theatre, the operation was called off because another member of the exchange group was ill.

The surgery was rescheduled for the new year, which made for an anxious Christmas with the family "totally cocooned" to avoid the threat of Covid-19.

So after a five-year wait, on 3 January, Michelle and Eoin retraced their journey from Galway to Belfast.

But just as they crossed the border, disaster struck when their car broke down.

With less than 40 miles of the 250-mile trip to go, the couple were, as they put it, "stressed out of our heads".

Utterly resigned and devastated, the couple thought their luck had run out.

While out on a regular patrol, Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Constables Aaron Chambers and Matthew Millen spotted a car pulled up at the side of the motorway.

The couple explained to the officers they were having mechanical difficulties and there was somewhere they needed to be, urgently.

"They then told me it was for a transplant," said Con Chambers. "We knew we had to get them there pretty sharpish."

"The officers were so calm and so kind, from the first moment they appeared, I stopped worrying," Michelle said.

"They completely took control and made us their priority for the next 40 minutes."

The officers arranged for the Maddens' car to be safely stored at the local station and packed their luggage into the back of the police car before making the "quick run up the road" to Belfast City Hospital.

Michelle underwent her operation first while Eoin "paced the room" nervously waiting for her return.

He was up next, and after almost 12 hours on the operating table, "the kidney just started functioning immediately," he said.

Now discharged from hospital, Eoin told BBC News NI: "My kidney function is perfect, literally the best it's been in my life.

"My wife's kidney function is perfect and the pair we exchanged with over in Great Britain are doing really well as well. This will be a new lease of life for me."

Eoin hopes that his story will help those awaiting donation to "keep the faith", while also encouraging others to think about becoming an organ donor.

"It's a fantastic gift that you can give to someone else when you pass on," he said.

As for the two officers who rescued the couple, they said: "We don't think we've done anything special, we just did what anyone would do in that situation."

"The real people who deserve any recognition are the ones that donated the organs," added Con Aaron Chambers.

"We were just a taxi with blue and yellow chevrons and a couple of traffic exemptions."