On Feb. 14, 1984, the world’s first successful combined heart-liver transplant was performed in Pittsburgh at UPMC Children’s Hospital by pioneering transplant surgeon and researcher Thomas E. Starzl, MD, PhD, and colleagues.  Starzl and colleagues performed the world’s first heart-liver transplant on 6-year-old Stormie Jones from Texas.  She lived until November 1990.

While organ transplantation has become routine and widespread during the last 50 years with ever-increasing efficacy and good long-term outcomes for the majority of patients, some forms of solid organ transplantation remain relatively rare. Combined heart-liver transplantation is one of those rarities.

That first case led to numerous other medical discoveries and laid the foundation for hundreds more procedures to be performed with increasing efficacy and long-term quality of life. However, combined-heart liver transplants remain a rare phenomenon.

The exact cause of the patient’s heart failure remains unclear but has been attributed to non-ischemic cardiomyopathy of unknown etiology. The effects of the heart failure caused the initial abdominal pain, kidney failure, and subsequent liver dysfunction and cirrhosis.

Since 2010, only a little more than 400 had been performed in the United States, the vast majority of which have occurred in patients older than 18.