Miracle Operation
The Sun Herald
Saturday June 25, 1994
LONDON: A 32-year-old man who received six transplant organs was released from hospital yesterday and doctors said he has a "50-50" chance of survival.
Stephen Hyett received a liver, kidney, stomach, duodenum, small intestine and pancreas in a 14-hour operation at Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital.
The operation had not been announced previously, and the hospital declined to give the exact date of the surgery, only saying it was in March.
Mr Hyett has a condition called Gardner's Syndrome, which can cause deadly tumors in the bowel and duodenum. Professor Sir Roy Calne, who headed the surgical team, said Gardner's Syndrome was not a cancer, but a recurring fibroma.
Mr Hyett said he only discovered the extent of his multiple organ transplant when he awoke after the operation.
"At first they were only going to give me a new intestine and liver but when a donor finally came along and they opened me up they decided that the other organs had to be replaced as well," he said.
"Where I had an awful lot of pain before the operation I haven't got that now. Although I get a bit tired, they said that would go with time. Otherwise I am fine."
A five-year-old British girl, Laura Davies, received seven organs last September 16 in Pittsburgh but died on November 11.
© 1994 The Sun Herald