Woman Gets New Heart, Lungs, Liver in First Triple Transplant

British surgeons today replaced the heart, lungs and liver of a 35-year-old woman in the first known triple transplant of its kind, a hospital spokesman said.

The woman, identified only as a mother and coal miner’s wife from northern England, was said to be in satisfactory condition after the seven-hour operation at Papworth Hospital in Huntingdon in central England. The 15-member medical team was headed by four surgeons.

The woman had been seriously ill for several months, suffering from pulmonary hypertension that affected the heart and lungs, and liver disease, hospital spokesman Peter Campion said.

The donor of all three organs, from Oxford in western England, was not identified further.

Campion said it could be several years before another triple transplant is carried out.

“Normally when a person has a lot of problems, it is possible to perform the transplants separately,” he said. “In this case, if we had carried out a liver transplant first, say, the woman’s heart would have failed.”