AN IRISH transplant patient has thanked a generous stranger who stepped into offer her the use of a private jet to travel to Britain for urgent medical treatment.
Isabel Terry suffers from pulmonary atresia, a birth defect of the heart which forces her to use bottled oxygen 24 hours a day.
The Cork native faced a grueling 12-hour journey by car and ferry to an appointment with her transplant team in Newcastle after the HSE turned down her request for an air ambulance.
Ms Terry was unable to fly out to England for her appointment due to her oxygen tank and the risk of infection.
She was told by the HSE that they would cover the cost of her journey under the Treatment Abroad Scheme, but would not cover extra expenses.
But the 41-year-old is set to spend the next week undergoing tests in Newcastle to determine whether she is able to be added to the transplant list, after the intervention of an anonymous do-gooder.
Ms Terry told the Neil Prenderville Show on Cork’s Red FM: “I would have needed to bring six litres of oxygen and I can’t fly on a regular airline with six litres. It’s classed as liquid and you can’t bring much liquid on a flight.
“I was talking to Newcastle and every second day I’d ring and they’d heard nothing back and I suggested about a month or so ago about getting a ferry and they said ‘absolutely no, it’s far too long for you to do that’.
“Newcastle were on to be about two weeks ago saying they were getting nowhere with the HSE and ‘so sorry we think you’re going to have to make that trip on the ferry... we need to see you, it’s been three years’.
“Then the other day I got a call, someone offered me a private plane! They want to stay anonymous which you understand and I’m going to Newcastle on Monday evening.”
Ms Terry, who hasn’t travelled by air for years, has spent 14 years on a transplant waiting list in Ireland and feared she might miss out if she missed her appointment in England.
She recently found she had no passport and praised gardai and the passport office in Cork for helping her obtain vital travel documents in a matter of hours.
“I’ve been deteriorating in the last two years and the Newcastle team hadn’t seen me so it’s very important for me to see them,” she added.
“I don’t know, hand on my heart, on Thursday will I come out of the hospital and be told ‘we have to take you off the list you’re not well enough to the operation’.
“When you’re waiting for a transplant you need to be well enough to have it. If you are too sick they won’t do it because it could potentially... if they think you won’t make it through... not being mean or anything, it’s wasting a heart.”
When contacted by The Irish Post for a comment on Ms Terry's circumstances, a spokesperson for the HSE stated that it does not comment on individual cases.
