By John Harrington

It says a lot about the person Seán O’Leary is that he’s determined to do something positive with the most traumatic experience of his life.

He suffered horrific injuries in a car crash on the way home from Kerry's 2021 Munster SFC semi-final win over Tipperary that he’s still coming to terms with both physically and mentally, but he knows too he was lucky to have survived the accident at all.

The only reason he did was because he made it to Tralee Hospital in time for a transfusion to replace all the blood he had lost.

The experience made him realise just how vital an organisation the Irish Blood Transfusion Service is, and that’s why he’s keen to tell his story and raise awareness of the ‘It’s in your blood’ campaign run by the IBTS and the GAA to recruit new donors.

“My leg was so damaged in the car accident that my right femur came out through the skin and I was left holding the bone in my hand and that caused a significant amount of blood loss,” says O’Leary about the injuries he sustained on that fateful night.

“I was very lucky that I didn't bleed to death in the first hour or two after the crash. Once I got to the hospital the main thing they did was to start to give me blood transfusions because of the amount of blood I lost.

“If that blood wasn't there when I got to the hospital, there's a huge chance I wouldn't have survived at all. I needed seven units of blood which equates to around seven pints of blood. I didn't even know what a blood transfusion was prior to my accident.

“It was only a few days later that I realised how much blood I'd gotten and the fact that it saved my life. It really opened my eyes to how vital they are really.”

In October 2021 the IBTS ran a donation clinic at Dromhall Hotel in Killarney and among the donors was a large contingent of O’Leary’s fellow Kilcummin club members, including 22 players and backroom members from the club’s senior team.

Many of them continue to go to IBTS clinics on a regular basis now, which is a legacy that O’Leary is delighted with because he’s keenly aware that there’s always a shortage of blood in a country where one in four people will need a transfusion at some point, but only three per cent of the eligible Irish population are donors.

Kilcummin's blood donation drive was so successful that he believes other GAA clubs could do something similar by signing up to the ‘It’s in your blood campaign’ and make a hugely positive contribution to their community in the process.

“Absolutely,” says O’Leary. “Everybody in every community in Ireland knows people who are unfortunately going through something in life, be it an illness or disease, that requires them to get blood transfusions on a weekly or monthly basis.

“And most people would also know others who have been through accidents like my own that also needed blood transfusions. Every GAA club in Ireland has fantastic facilities in terms of halls or huge complexes that they can use even once or twice a year to get the Irish Blood Transfusion Service in and do a blood drive.

“We all know someone in our life who will unfortunately need a blood transfusion down the line. You don't know who that person is or when they'll need it, but someone you know will.

“So a blood drive is a great thing your club can do for your community because it's vital people start realising how important it is to donate blood. It can be the difference between someone's life being saved or not.”

O’Leary’s physical rehabilitation since the car-crash has been a difficult journey. That was always going to be the case when you consider the injuries he sustained.

As well as the compound fracture to his right femur which led to such blood-loss, he also fractured the fibula and tibia in his right leg, his left femur, and his sternum.

His right leg was so badly damaged that when it was reset it was shorter than his left leg by an inch, so that required further surgery on his left leg to take an inch off it to ensure his two legs were the same length.

He was in a wheelchair for six months, and it took him another nine months or so to be able to properly walk again.

Since then he’s been slowing building up the muscles around the bones but he still has a way to go in terms of building back up the strength lost.

“Altogether I have 120 centimeres of titanium rods going through my legs,” says O’Leary. “It's very sore still and hard to come to terms with that.

“The physios have been directing me in the right path and I've had a few visits to the Sports Surgery Clinic Santry as well. I've been getting great support all round.

“It's one of those things where I have to put the head down and put in a lot of hard work. There were a lot of tough days, there always is for people who go through something like this, both physically and mentally.

“You have to just keep believing in yourself and hope all the hard work will pay off. It's great that I'm still improving from where I was before, but I know I still have a lot more hard work to do.

“I suppose I want to show people that if they go through something similar to myself that you can come out of it.”

The injuries O’Leary sustained have proven to be mentally as well as physically challenging.

At the time of the car-crash he was living his best life as a Kerry senior footballer two weeks out from the Munster Final, so to have all that taken away was hard to take.

“It is tough,” he admits. “It's horrific coming to terms with that much trauma and how much your life can be turned upside down so quickly.

“But I found it very helpful from talking to professionals. I got great help from the GPA and support from the county and it really shows how important it is to talk to people about those things.

“My family, girlfriend, friends and all my team-mates from various teams have all been hugely supportive too.

“No way can you come through something like this yourself. It was a huge help for me at the time and it continues to be a great help to me to talk to people about how you can deal with and overcome something like this.

“I would strongly advise anyone who finds themselves in similar circumstances to reach out to people and get the necessary help.”

Despite all the challenges he’s faced and continues to face, O’Leary views the situation he finds himself in with a health dose of perspective. In fact, it came to him very early on in the healing process.

“It is tough, but I have to look at the positives,” he says. “It could have been so much worse and I'm so grateful it wasn't.

“I remember sitting in the hospital a week later and I was in a very tough place but then I was looking at my phone and unfortunately the news came through that Brendan Óg O'Duffy had died in a car accident. That was just six days after my own car accident.

“I remember being in hospital by myself and just breaking down because the two situations were so similar. Both of us were coming home from a match that we were involved in with our counties. I made it to hospital but unfortunately he didn't.

“In a situation like that you have to appreciate that there's always worse things happening to other people. I always think back to that whenever I'm feeling a bit down. You could say that I'm lucky that I'm able to get up in the morning and do what I want to do.”

His dream is to be able to get back to playing Gaelic football at a level close to where he was at before the car-crash, but he’s focused on short-term goals for now because anything other than such an approach would only lead to frustration and disappointment.

He made a competitive return to a football pitch last December with University of Limerick, but he still has a journey to travel in terms of the physical healing process.

“I've played a bit, but I've only played certain parts of games and stuff like that,” he says. “I have to be very mindful not to cause any more damage to the muscles more than anything.

“It's a slow process and I'm taking advice from medical professionals because I don't want to cause more damage and I have to be wary of the rods. And also my chest, my sternum, had a bad break in the accident so I have to be mindful of that as well.

“That day coming home from the match I thought I'd be looking forward to a Munster Final two weeks later and the next thing I was in a wheelchair.

“So, to be honest, goals wise, I just want to take it as it comes really because you just don't know what's around the corner. I'm just going to continue trying to get myself, if I ever can, back to where I was before and just keep hopefully improving.

“I want to be a good example to those who will unfortunately experience something similar. I want to show that with a good attitude and determination you can try to push yourself to overcome something that's quite significant.”

If your GAA club is interested in taking part in an Irish Blood Transfusion Service donation clinic, go HERE