“I was 6-foot-1 and weighed 48 kilograms. I received 100% of my nutrients through Total Parenteral Nutrition via an IV. Food was a foreign concept to me. It was just a fond memory.”

These are the words of Brendan Cole, who made history in 2010 by being Australia’s first intestinal transplant recipient. 

Suffering intestinal failure since infancy, Brendan also received a donor liver, pancreas and duodenum, in a complex and historic multi-organ transplant conducted by Austin Health surgeons, led by Professor Bob Jones.

Brendan was being kept alive only by a process of artificial feeding directly into the bloodstream called Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN). Without this ground-breaking transplant surgery, Brendan’s prognosis was poor. Eleven years on, Brendan is married with a young family, and has a wonderful future.

“Thank you is one of those phrases that doesn’t seem enough. This (donor) family has done something that has given me a chance to have a future. Not only a future for myself, but to have an impact other people’s lives, raise a son, and be normal,” says Brendan.

“In their darkest time, when they had just lost someone, they made the brave, heroic decision to donate their loved one’s organs. To have the foresight to think of someone else - you can’t thank them enough. They are heroes.” 

More Australians are alive today because of organ and tissue donation. To register to be an organ and tissue donor, visit donatelife.gov.au – it only takes a minute.