Chicago Man Receives Triple Transplant

CHICAGO, IL - JUNE 6: Michael Gaynor poses for a photograph in his hospital room in the medical center at the University of Chicago Hospitals June 6, 2003 in Chicago, Illinois. On May 21, 2003, after seven months of waiting, including nearly six weeks in the hospital, 40-year-old Gaynor of suburban Chicago received a new heart, liver and kidney at The University of Chicago Hospitals from a single donor. He is the fourth patient in the U.S. to undergo this complex multi-organ transplant and the third at the University of Chicago. Only one of the other previous recipients is still living. Gaynor's heart and liver damages were caused by a rare, inherited, metabolic defect called glycogen storage disease (GSD) type IIIa, also known as Forbes' disease, which gradually damages the liver and muscles, including the heart. The kidney damage resulted from insufficient blood flow, caused by his severe heart failure. (Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images)