Lee-Anne removing pieces from her dragon boat as she raises funds for the air ambulance
As they renovated their Lisburn house, Lee-Anne Schmitz and her husband noticed that he was experiencing back pain. They assumed he had pulled a muscular.
Just days later, Greg had a heart attack in their bedroom. Lee-Anne was horrified to see him “die in front of her eyes”.
Greg was taken to Royal Victoria Hospital but, on 28 February 2021, it was decided to turn off the life support and donate a few of his organs.
The man was only 42.
Lee-Anne received a thank you letter for his pancreas donation, as well as kidneys and liver, from three recipients. The recipient expressed her sorrow over her loss and thanked her for this incredible gift.
The mum of two is now preparing for a race in September on the Lagan in Belfast.
Lee-Anne wants to help raise funds for the HEMS team (Northern Ireland’s Air Ambulance Service), which fought to save Greg at first.
Lee-Anne (43) says, “The medical team that helped Greg was incredible.”
We found a tear on his main heart valve (aortic). This is what caused his back pain.”
Lee-Anne met Greg in London, where they both lived and worked in 2014. After they married in July 2017, and had their children Dylan (7 years old) and Jasmine (4 years old), they returned to Lee-Anne’s home in Northern Ireland, to be nearer to her family.
She says, “We rented our first apartment just prior to the Covid lockdown. It was a truly idyllic, special summer for us.
The kids loved the space after London.
Greg would often take them for a walk while I worked from home. Dylan had so much energy and was constantly whizzing about. Jasmine was tucked in a backpack for a child on Greg’s shoulders.
In the autumn of 2010, Greg, a plumber by training, started his own company, Handy Home Improvements NI.
Lee-Anne recalls, “He was active, fit and healthy.” “I would have never thought there was anything wrong.”
Greg’s handyman experience led to the purchase of “a bit of a fixer-upper” by the couple in Lisburn, in February 2021. As soon as the couple received the keys they started renovating, with the help from family.
When Greg complained about a mid-back pain, between his shoulderblades, his friends assumed that he had pulled a muscular. A friend then lent him a back massaging machine, which they used in the evenings.
On Thursday, February 25, Greg and Lee Anne were stripping wallpaper at home after working. Lee Anne told her husband that he should go to bed before her, as he had been struggling with back pain.
Lee-Anne says, “By late evening when I arrived home, he and Dylan had curled themselves up together in bed fast asleep.”
He’d worked so hard that I thought he needed to rest.”
Greg was again agitated the next morning, and complained of his back. The massager was used again before he went back to bed.
Lee-Anne: “I took Dylan down to the basement to play.”
“I went to see Greg and, when I found him lying on his back, I sat next to him and gave him a cheek kiss and instructed him to rest.
Lee-Anne was about to bring Jasmine down the stairs when she heard an “horrible snoring sound”.
She says, “I ran back to the bedroom. I saw Greg dying in front of my eyes.”
I called 911 and was instructed to drag the man onto the floor and begin CPR.
He was like a heavy weight and Jasmine who was carrying me reached out to kiss his cheek, saying Daddy.
Greg was treated by paramedics from HEMS and a HEMS doctor before being taken to the hospital.
The damage had already been done. Greg’s head had not been receiving enough oxygen.
Lee-Anne was horrified to have Dylan tell her that he wouldn’t be home.
She says, “I told him that daddy is going to heaven.”
Dylan asked me if I would be there with him, as we had seen a bird dead on our walk that week.
He was too young to comprehend.
Lee-Anne took the courageous decision on Sunday 28th February to donate his pancreas, kidneys and liver. It gave her comfort as she settled into her new home after losing her husband.
Incredibly, a post-mortem revealed that Greg suffered from a heartattack in the years or months leading up to death. He had dismissed this pain, and continued on. The aortic valvular tear is often caused by inherited weakness or genetics. Nearly two years after the death of her husband, Lee Anne received a note from the transplant service. It was a heartfelt thank-you from one man who had received Greg’s organs.
He explained that he was married with children and had been through three unsuccessful transplants before Greg’s gift.
In the letter, it says: “I don’t forget my donor or how lucky I am.
When I consider his family, this also brings me sadness.
Lee-Anne, determined to ease his worries, wrote back that “everything about my spouse was good. He was the most nicest, gentlest soul you’d ever meet.” It’s wonderful to hear that you still think of him and that part of his spirit lives in you.
She says, “I have kept these letters and I will show them when Dylan and Jasmine are old enough to appreciate the amazing gift that their father gave.
It’ll never be able to bring Greg back but I’m glad it was able stop the suffering of another family.”
Lee-Anne will be taking on the Dragon Boat Challenge with a Diageo team in Belfast, where she is employed, on Friday 15th September at River’s Edge. The team hopes to raise at minimum PS1,500 for HEMS.
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