Weeshie's Week

Jerry O'Leary from Kanturk - A Great Cork Supporter

September 4th, 2007
by Weeshie Fogarty
"The following morning I got a text from Jerry o Connor, a Garda colleague, who asked me to visit a great Cork supporter Jerry o Leary from Kanturk who was in the Mater hospital waiting for a heart transplant. Jerry and John Allen were going up to visit him and would I come along. Unlike last year there was no cup. But I went and am glad I went. Just to see Jerry there wearing his Cork jersey and a big smile on his face. You wouldn't believe what he has been through this past year because since December he has been hooked up to this machine and its that which is keeping him alive. He hasn't been home in nine months. Home for him now is this little room looking out at the side wall of a building. It's the classic case of one prisoner seeing bars and another seeing stars. Jerry sees stars. He sees the bright side of life, he chooses his attitude. So as I left I thought to myself, Brian you can choose your attitude".
  "Every Single Ball"-Brian Corcoran former Cork hurler and footballer.
As soon as the final whistle was sounded in Croke Park last Sunday week the build up began for what promises to be one of the most hotly contested All Ireland football finals ever. Already I have heard it referred to as the All Ireland Munster Football Final. The mother of all finals, the most important game Cork or Kerry have ever played, etc. etc. It has even been reliably reported that fans especially in Cork have said they would die happy if Kerry were put to the sword and Billy Morgan's men triumphed. One person quoted to me words of the late Bill Shakley the legendary Liverpool manager who once remarked. "Sport is not a matter of life and death, it is even more important than that".

Yes indeed for the age old rivals who race on to the green sward of Croke Park in two weeks time this is the big one and events before and after the game will dominate the lives of most followers. And it is on this very subject i.e. the lives of followers that sparked this particular column. We need at times to put things in a little perspective in relation to the importance of winning and loosing and no better opportunity with the All Ireland Munster Final just around the corner.

Two months ago I found myself in the lovely Cork town of Kanturk. Renowned world wide as the home of Irelands greatest ever Olympian. Dr Pat o Callaghan the legendary hammer-thrower was born in the Townland of Derrygallon a few miles west of the town. He won two gold medals for his event in Amsterdam 1928, and Los Angles, 1932. But my visit there was to meet a man who had set his own world record for something with no relation what so ever to do with sport. A fanatical supporter of the Cork football and hurling teams Jerry o Leary's view of the upcoming game will be completely different from other supporter in this country and across the bounds. His is a story of sickness, courage in the face of great adversity, near death, life saving transplant, devotion to a Kanturk missionary and a world record which no person near or far ever wants to match.

Jerry o Leary spent a record 311 days attached to an artificial heart machine before getting his life saving heart transplant operation last December. A former welded Jerry had major surgery in February last year when doctors in Dublin's Mater Hospital fitted him with an artificial heart before he began his long anxious wait for a suitable donor. The machine was used to pump blood all around his body to keep up circulation and oxidization. It was the longest time that any Irish person had spent on an artificial heart machine. And it was directly responsible in keeping this great Cork supporter alive.

Jerry suffered a heart attack while watching Cork play Dublin in Croke Park in 1995. Three years later he suffered a second heart attack which necessitated him giving up his working life as a welder. Then in 2005 he became very ill to such an extent that he was constantly out of breath and he found it difficult to walk. This put an end to his life's passion following the Cork teams. Shortly after this he began his years wait in Dublins Mater Hospital.  Jerry explained the shock of being told, "I could not believe it when the doctors told me that I would need a heart transplant, I knew things were bad but this news stunned me. I was told that my heart was in such a poor state that I needed to be on the transplant priority list. Things were getting progressively worst for me. First they put me on a balloon pump which kept me going until February2006 and then my surgeon Mr. Wood informed me that they were going to put me on an artificial heart, it's the only chance you have, we have not got a donor heart for you as of yet so this is your only chance. You won't survive without it. You have only seven to ten days to live".

I put it to Jerry that to receive news such as this must have been terribly difficult to accept. "I didn't know what to think, I was confused and upset but the operation to insert the pumps was done on Saturday so it all happened very quickly. I was in intensive care and I had a set back on two occasions and was returned to theater. I remained very ill for three weeks. The pumps were now working very efficiently and I began to realize where I was and what was happening". I asked Jerry to explain about these two pumps that were now the difference for him between life and death. "I was the second person to have these attached to me, the first person a Dublin man died after just thirteen days. My heart was now doing nothing and these pumps were to keep me alive for 311 days. It was very difficult with them; they were like a milking machine pumping away, night and day, week after week, and month after month.

The waiting for the donor heart was tough and on two occasions I was informed that they had a heart for me. The first time was July but there was some little damage discovered in the heart and it wasn't suitable. Then the second time they told me that they were 99% certain that it would be mine. I was ready and waiting, placed on the trolley to go to the theater and at the last second it was called off. That was a very difficult time, I was so down hearted. However it did suit some other person and thank God some else benefited from it". A great thrill for Jerry was when the Cork hurlers Brian Corcoran, Jerry and Ben o Connor and the manager John Allen paid him a visit. It was the morning after the All Ireland, they had been beaten but it lifted his spirits greatly.

"At eleven o clock one night Dr. McCarthy rang me with the great news that they had received a heart which was suitable for my transplant. He asked me, "Are you up for it". Well, I replied if it's going to get me off these pumps it will be great, I'm ready. The transplant team was assembled, I was prepared and at 11.45 pm I was wheeled down the corridors and into the operating theater. I was up set and frightened and very apprehensive of course. I was anointed before the operation began. I prayed fervently to my late mother and to Edel Quinn who came from Kanturk.

Following the operation I remained in a coma for seventeen days. I was confused when I woke up and it took me a few days to come around but it was great to have got rid of those pumps even though they had kept me alive for 311 days". So what did it feel like to have a new heart beating within his body? "I had this new feeling all over my body, breathing on my own and my first thoughts were for the donor. I couldn't believe it, it was absolutely brilliant. It was a new beginning for me. I think of the donor every day, what he did for me, and it was a male donor. I remained in hospital for over three months, I had to learn how to walk again and the staff in the hospital were so good to me". Jerry's operation was filmed by RTE with his permission and shown when he was discharged from hospital.

Jerry o Leary self confessed Cork hurling and football fanatic is now well on his way to full health. He lives in his beautiful comfortable home in Kanturk and walks daily in the town park. He finds himself getting progressively stronger every day of the week. A gentle, unassuming and kind person Jerry kept stressing to me that the operation would not have ben possible without the generosity of the organ donor and the donor's family. He is eagerly looking forward to the All Ireland final however the importance of winning and losing will be easily kept in perspective for him. Perhaps at times we should look at this exemplary Cork supporter and keep our own priorities in proper perspective.

Fogra: Jerry attributes his recovery following his transplant and seventeen days coma to the intercession of Edel Quinn. Edel was born in Kanturk in 1907 and worked tirelessly for The Legion of Mary in Central Africa despite poor health. She died in 1944 and is buried in Nairobi. Cause for her Canonization opened in 1952. Numerous miracles have been attributed to her. Jerry has been chosen to unveil a memorial to her in Kanturk on September 14th on the 100th anniversary of her birth.

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