A great-grandad has celebrated his 80th birthday more than three decades after a heart transplant.
Eddie Tierney was 44 when he had the op in 1984 – and surgeons warned him the organ may last only five years.
But 36 years later he is still going strong and yesterday welcomed a new law which means everyone in England is assumed to be an organ donor, unless they opt out.
Max and Keira’s Law is named after Max Johnson, 12, of Winsford, Cheshire, and his heart donor Keira Ball, nine, who died in a car accident near her home in Barnstaple, Devon, in 2017.
The Mirror campaigned for four years to bring it to the statute book. Eddie lives in Wales, where the opt-out system has been in place since 2015.
“It is a good idea as far I’m concerned,” said Eddie, who lives with his wife Phyllis, 77, near Rhyl, Denbighshire.
“It means there is more chance of people getting a heart transplant than there was when I had mine.”
Eddie, a former cabinet maker who later ran a second-hand shop, fell ill with a flu virus which attacked his heart.
“I went in with the flu and the next thing I was told I had six weeks to live,” he said.
After a spell in Glan Clwyd Hospital in nearby Bodelwyddan he received a transplant at Harefield Hospital in West London.
The operation was performed by world famous surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub. Eddie said: “I was his 93rd heart transplant at Harefield. He told me when I had it done that I should get five years.”
One of the young doctors who cared for him initially in North Wales later became the Tierney family’s local GP.
Dr David Whyler phoned Eddie last week to say happy birthday.
Eddie said: “He told me he could never believe that I would get to 80. I’m still here. To be still here 36 years on, it’s just remarkable. I just can’t believe it.”
Eddie later discovered his heart donor was a 27-year-old woman. And although he never met her family, he said: “I’m so grateful to them.”
He still enjoys road trips on his two motorcycles and added: “I’m looking forward to getting out on my bike when the lockdown ends.”
Eddie, who has a son, Michael, a daughter, Debbie, four grandchildren and a three-month-old great-grandson, Caleb, had to scrap a birthday party planned last Friday.
But his family bought him a laptop so he and Phyllis can keep in touch via video link-ups. “It’s amazing,” he said.
He thanked the British Heart Foundation for their support over the years.
Eddie said: “I’ve tried to play my part in helping the local branch. Its pioneering research work has enabled people like me to live longer.”
