Johnno's sacrifice

Forty years ago, Australia’s first heart-lung transplant was performed on 7 November 1986 at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney. The patient was John Anthony O’Malley, a 26 year old Queensland man. He died 19 days later, on 26 November, from pneumonia and rejection of the transplanted organs. [1]

DON'T DRINK & DRIVE THIS XMAS
YA NEVER KNOW WHERE YA HEART MAY END UP
John, Donna and Taxi; 1984 Christmas card

Born in Brisbane in February 1960, John was the youngest of three children of Margaret and Brian O’Malley. [2] He was described as a ‘blue baby’, a symptom indicating a lack of oxygen in the blood. [3]

John had two older siblings - brother Glen and sister Margaret. John’s mother took pride in saying that each of her three children had arrived in a different decade – the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s. 

John’s father was a draughtsman. He enlisted in the Australian Military Forces in Brisbane while still an art student, but was deemed medically unfit with colitis in late 1942. [4] He married WRAN Ellen Marshall, known as Margaret, in 1947. [5]

John was nine years old when his father died of renal failure and hypotension in 1969. [6]

In 1983 John moved to Melbourne with a friend and sought work as a labourer. After a short time, he had difficulty breathing and concluded that he was unfit. The difficulty worsened. John was diagnosed with primary pulmonary hypertension. 

In early 1984, Donna, partner and carer to John, drove him to Gladstone in Queensland, to stay with his sister Marg and scout for a property to set up a nursery. John had relinquished paid work because of his health.

Like his brother, John inherited artistic skill, evident in his writing, his interest in spinning wool and Aran cable knit stitches, and the graphically-designed logo for his new business Tarin-Tooka.

He was also keen to learn more about in his origins. In a curious twist of fate, a brief genealogical search showed that John’s O’Malley great-great-grandmother Honorah O’Mahoney (known as Norah) of County Clare, was also the maiden name of Donna’s great-grandmother Honorah Mahony (known as Annie) whose father Denis was born in County Cork, Ireland.

John required an oxygen tank to keep breathing. 

Christmas 1984 

In the family Christmas card, John explained:

John acknowledged Donna’s support: “DONNA THE 22YRO WITH THE COURAGE OF NOONE I KNOW TO STAND BY ME.” 

It took almost two years to find a suitable donor. John was one of several eligible patients. The groundbreaking nature of the surgery ensured media interest in their stories. John’s health continued to decline, almost removing the opportunity for an operation, but eventually treatment with prostacyclin turned that around. 

In 1985, a decision was made to purchase a small acreage in the Hunter Valley where a native plant nursery could be established. John was keen to prepare for a future; he and Donna moved there late that year. 

Tarin-Tooka

Tarin means red gum and Tooka means grass, in the language of the Wonnarua tribe of the Hunter River, near to Wollombi. [7] 

As John explained in 1985 [8]: 

A new old heart-lung 

In late 1985, John was interviewed on the ABC television program Beatbox. This program, which replaced the well-known Countdown, was an experiment funded to provide work experience to unemployed young people. [9] John’s answers were spliced into a segment called “Alive and Kicking” which also featured a song with the same name by the Scottish rock band Simple Minds. [10]  

Interviewer: “When did you find out that you had a real big problem on your hands?”

John: “At the beginning of ’84, but it didn’t really sink in then. They just said you’ve got this heart disease, eventually you’ll get pretty sick, and eventually you’ll die, and ahh, I just thought, well I sort of feel OK now. I can’t chop trees down, but, or do all these manual jobs, but I thought ahh that’s OK, I can still get around.” 

(John had exhibited signs of breathlessness in March 1983, when he visited his partner’s family in Canberra and offered to assist with gardening activities, but assumed it was bronchitis.)

Interviewer: “Did you also think it was always other people who got really crook?”

John: “Yeah, I did. 

Even when I was living in Melbourne, a friend’s brother had a kidney transplant and I thought that couldn’t happen to me, not the sort of way I live.

I’ve got too much to do to stop for something like that.” 

Interviewer: “What is your attitude towards the transplant situation?” 

John: “I know it’s my only option to extend my life. It’s never going to make my life normal again. Lots of drugs to take and regular check-ups. I know all that but I just wanta give it a go and I know the doctors at St Vincent’s are gunna give it everything they’ve got.

And I reckon I can give it everything I’ve got and make a good job of it.”  

Interviewer: “Have you any ideas why you did get pulmonary disease?”  

John: “Ahh, doctors in the last coupla years just sort of, when I’ve moved to different places just said what fumigant were you using to get this, and I’ve only ever used one  fumigant in a workplace and that was some stuff called Methyl Bromide and it’s just ahh, at the time I thought this stuff can’t hurt me and it’s ahh, you just should sorta, and I just extend a warning to people that take jobs, you know it’s better to be on the dole for a few more weeks longer than take jobs where you have to work with chemicals or not work without earmuffs or steel-capped boots or, because there is no use sorta letting work hurt ya.” 

One year later, the call that John had been waiting for was received, and travel from Wollombi to Sydney was quickly organised.  The five-surgeon operation team at St. Vincent’s Hospital was led by the late Dr. Victor Chang and included the late Professor Don Esmore. The Hospital’s heart-lung transplant unit was relatively new. [11, 13] 

The operation was described in detail by The Sunday Telegraph two days after the operation. [12] 

The “transplant flats” 

Family members of transplant patients are accommodated in St Vincent’s “transplant flats” behind the Hospital in Darlinghurst. John’s family stayed, and his partner Donna helped with his care. By the end of the second week after the operation, Dr Chang advised Mrs O’Malley that John was not going to survive the pneumonia which had taken over. [5] There was an opportunity to say goodbye. 

John passed away on 27^th November. Four days later, Donna turned 24. 

Over the next two months, Margaret O'Malley received and responded to more than 250 letters and cards of condolence. [14] 

Prior to his murder in July 1991, Dr Chang and St Vincent’s Hospital performed three more heart-lung operations in the following two years: one in 1987 and two in 1988. From 1989, there were more than 10 operations per year. By 1991, there was a waiting list of almost 50 people. [15] 

As experience grew, lives were lengthened. John had made the ultimate sacrifice. 

References 

[1] John Anthony O’Malley, New South Wales death certificate #1986/27931

[2] Family Notices (1947, September 6). The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), p. 4 (CITY FINAL LAST MINUTE NEWS). http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201321319

[3] Family letter, November 1992

[4] Mobilization Attestation Form, National Archives of Australia, B884 Item 4453009 O'MALLEY THOMAS BRIAN LEO : Service Number - Q153078; https://naa.gov.au

[5] Australians At War Film Archive, Interview with Ellen Margaret O’Malley, Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANs), 5 May 2004, UNSW Canberra, https://australiansatwarfilmarchive.unsw.edu.au/archive/1979

[6] Thomas Brian Leo O’Malley, Queensland death certificate #4273/1969

[7] Miller, Robert, "No. 188 - The Hunter River. The Wonnarua Tribe and Language.", p.355, p.357; Living Histories, https://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/57600

[8] Letter written by John O’Malley, late 1985

[9] ABC leads the field in IYY television (1985, July 2). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 17. Retrieved October 26, 2026, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article127205920

[10] Beatbox episode “Alive and Kicking”, parts 3 and 4, interview with John O'Malley filmed at Wollombi, NSW, 1985

[11] Weekend Australian magazine, 3-4 April 2004, pp.18-21 [12] Step by step: How they did it at St Vincent’s, The Sunday Telegraph, 9 November 1986, p.5

[13] Heart-lung transplant: How it almost went wrong, National Times on Sunday, 11 November 1986, p.3

[14] Letter written by Mrs Margaret O’Malley, 30 January 1987

[15] Transplantation in Australia – 50 Years of Progress in Medical Journal of Australia, Jeremy R. Chapman, 6 July 1992, pp46-50, ISSN 0025-729X

Newspaper headlines from articles in family collection. 

Wollombi pole house, November 1986