THE LONG READ: Man from Laois/ Offaly border area reflects on transplant during Organ Donor Awareness Week

NICK HINES, (age 46) a native of Minnesota, USA, has made Ireland his home for the past 21 years. A secondary school teacher based in Clonaslee, Co Laois, on the foothills of the Slieve Bloom mountains, he has built a life here with his Irish wife Tracey Martin, who grew up in Tullamore, Co Offaly, and their two adult sons Caleb (26) and Gus (21), and daughter Molly who’s turning 15 this summer.

From the outside, Nick seemed like a typical energetic dad and teacher – playing basketball with his boys, teaching and taking his daughter horse riding. But what many didn’t know was that he was living for years with a serious heart condition.

In the lead-up to his life-saving transplant in January 2024 he explained, “I went to bed every evening considering that I might not wake up. I never said it aloud, but that was always in the back of my mind I suppose I learned to live that way, not thinking about too much future.”

Nick was unwell for a period of time in November 2019, it started as a cold and persisted through January 2020. He started to come back to himself when suddenly in February 2020, just before the pandemic, he suffered a stroke seemingly out of nowhere. He lost movement on one side and couldn’t speak for a short time. Fortunately, the clot cleared quickly. But the stroke led doctors to uncover a much more serious problem. Nick’s heart had severe myocarditis and extensive scarring. Later, just before transplantation the diagnosis was confirmed; sarcoidosis – believed to have been present as far back as 2011.

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From there, everything changed. Nick was fitted with a defibrillator, and in 2021, it saved his life during a sudden cardiac arrest. Even so, he continued teaching and living as normally as possible, all while knowing that his heart could give out at any moment.

Things took a sharp turn in September 2023. Nick had taken the bins out to the road and he couldn’t catch his breath. He collapsed back into the house. That same day, he was admitted to the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore. They got him back on his feet and asked him if he had ever had anyone talk to him about transplantation. He was referred to the Mater Hospital to undergo a series of tests over a few days at the beginning of December 2023. However, when he got there he was told he was too unwell to leave and had to stay there over the Christmas period despite his feeling okay as he described it.

“They said, ‘You’re not leaving. You’re going to wait here for a heart.’ I remember thinking - this is it. This is really happening.”

There was concern that he was not in a position to receive a heart it was so close at one point Nick said, ‘I told my wife and then the doctors that if the next set of tests exclude me for listing I want to go home and spend my last days with my family.’

Then, in early 2024, the call came. A match had been found. Nick received his transplant – a donor heart.

The recovery was challenging, with initial rejection and two weeks in ICU, but he made steady progress and within two months he was discharged from hospital and home with his family. In the months that followed, he found himself; cooking, gardening, walking and returning to sport.

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“I went on a trip with my family to Galway and there was a lot of walking, it hit me as we cruised through the Eyre square that I was present, not thinking about where we could stop so I could rest (without making a big deal out of it), we talked about where we would eat – so simple a thing – and laughed and chatted. I realised that this is the first time I was so clear of mind, not thinking about my health or how many more of these days I would have. That evening, I laid in bed not thinking about not waking up, but about my doner and their family. I do this everyday.”

Since hearing of Nick needing a heart transplant, he says that nearly every person he knows - friends, family, colleagues, even some students - have checked to make sure they have donor cards or have code 115 on their drivers licence and have discussed their wishes with their families and loved ones . “When someone close to you needs a transplant, it suddenly becomes real. It ripples out to everyone.”

Now, back at school, Nick is doing what he loves – teaching and living. And he’s sharing his story for Organ Donor Awareness Week 2025 because, as he puts it:
“My donor didn’t just save my life, they have improved my living of it.”