Mission Mater's Magazine - Flipbook - Page 12
In conversation with...Prof.Jim Egan
Mission Mater’s Editor John Deane-O’Keeffe, sits down with Prof.
Jim Egan, Executive Clinical Director, MMUH & Director, Organ
Donation & Transplants Ireland, and finds a man who dedicates his
life to patients and staff…and perhaps also a little, to the GAA
My late mother had a pathological fear of everyone from
Galway – which may have had something to do with the
fact that she was from North Mayo. Mind you, she was
equally suspicious if you were from another village, let
alone a county. She would have liked Galwayman Jim
Egan however, Executive Clinical Director at the Mater
Hospital and Head of the Transplant Department. You
see Jim does what it says on the tin - and then some.
Hailing from Galway City, his family owned a bar in the
centre of the city but talking to him in one of his Harry
Potter like offices in the old building, it was clear
growing up that he had only one interest – the GAA –
and playing football for Salthill Knocknacarra. While he
is happy to tell me that he graduated from medicine in
UCG 40 years ago in 1985, what he really wants to tell
me was that when he was a medical student, 8my claim to
fame was that I won two Sigerson Cup Medals and
featured briefly on the Galway Panel in 1982.9 By the
way, if you don9t get that, there9s no point talking to you.
It9s a GAA thing…
But there comes a time when every successful Clinical
Director must leave his playing boots to one side and so
his professional career, perhaps unsurprisingly, took off
at some speed. 8After getting married to my wife Ruth, I
focused on my career and emigrated to the UK in 1987 to
pursue training in the NHS, he says. 8I saw my first lung
transplant patient in 1989,9 Denis Weisman.
Lung Transplant was in its infancy, 8 he says, 8and it
represented a new frontier in Lung Medicine.9 Jim Egan
was then appointed a Consultant Respiratory Physician
with an interest in Lung Transplantation in 1996 in
Wythenshawe Hospital Manchester.
But Jim was to answer Ireland9s call and was appointed
to the Mater in 2000. However, having never lived or
worked in Dublin and with Gaillimh Ábu, and probably
Manchester still in his Sat Nav, he says, 8I even had to
locate the Mater Hospital on a map.9 But now began his
exciting transplant journey began in earnest, 8supporting
my surgical colleagues Professor Freddie Wood and
Professor Jim McCarthy the first lung transplant in May
2005. This first recipient was a very courageous lady
called Veronica Doyle from Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick,9 he
says.
Answering Ireland’s Call: Prof. Jim Egan is devoted to the Mater
PA GE
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