Claire Malone is a single mother with one lung, desperately awaiting a lung transplant.
Claire was talking to the Irish Mirror newspaper and told them of how she is petrified that her children will be left orphaned if she does not receive the transplant soon.
She has suffered such immense pain whilst waiting the transplant that she has stated that she would consider euthanasia if left to suffer any longer.
Claire who lost her ex-partner two years ago told the Irish Mirror:
“I’m 29 and I’m the only remaining parent. I know I will need a transplant so I can’t understand why they’re leaving me to degenerate. I’ve been told that I have to get to 7% [breathing capacity] and require eight litres of oxygen before I will get a lung.
“It’s not right to sustain people suffering. So many people who have wanted that as a choice. To me that’s scandalous.
“I mean if you had a pet you wouldn’t leave them to suffer like that. You’d put them out of their misery.”
Claire continued: “I need to get just a little bit worse to be in line for a transplant, even though it’s the end game. I will definitely need one.
“I don’t think if I got that bad I would be able for the operation.
“Physically, I may not be well enough to survive it at all. There’s a work up that you have to do for anaesthetics and I was told that I wouldn’t survive surgery.
“I wrote a four-page letter explaining how this was affecting me. I had become suicidal, not because I was depressed but because I couldn’t live like that any longer – in constant pain and suffering.
“I would rather have died on the table than keep going the way I was.
“You just get to the point where you cannot go on any longer.
“Some mornings I’m getting sick from the moment I wake up. I could be driving the kids to school and have to pull over to get sick. Then a few yards down the road I have to stop and vomit again.
“I say to my boys ‘I’m sorry’ and they say ‘It’s OK mam we’re used to it’.”
She added: ” I require oxygen all night every night. As soon as I lie down my heart rate slows and that affects my breathing. I wake up gasping for air.
“This happens two or three times during the night. My heart has also shifted to the right-hand side. It’s now located under my armpit.
“I am five times more likely to suffer a heat attack now. And if that did happen, if I were to need CPR at the moment, well it’s not going to happen with my heart under my armpit.
“I want to stay well for the kids. Last Christmas was awful for them.
“Michael had died weeks beforehand and we hadn’t even processed that he was gone when I ended up in hospital in Dublin. I was feeling fine beforehand and just went for a routine appointment when I was told I was seriously ill.
“That makes me wonder how many days am I operating on a fine line?”
Claire told how her former partner “died suddenly, laughing and joking”.
She added: “I had just literally arrived at the hospital and was shaving his beard when his face sort of froze.
“I ran and got a nurse and I heard them screaming 222. I knew what that was and I just sort of went hysterical.
“They brought me down to a room to wait and they came back 10 minutes later and I just knew he was gone.
“It was that quick. At that point I just sort of went to pieces.”
Claire went on to tell the Irish Mirror that she worries daily about her children’s future, adding: “When I actually sit down and I have nothing to do I get so afraid. I can’t switch off.
“I really hope the next 30 years if I have with them are awesome.”
The HSE said they cannot comment on individual cases.
<b>H/T: The Irish Mirror</b>