Woman Who Had All Major Organs Removed Becomes Doctor
| (http://www.blogcdn.com/www.aolhealth.com/media/2010/08/allison-john-organ-transplant240wy080410.jpg) | During a 12-year period, Allison John had nearly every major organ in her body transplanted, but she made sure the next time she entered a hospital it wouldn't be as an ill patient, but as a doctor.
As an adolescent, John, now 32, became Britain's first person to receive a new liver, kidney, heart and lungs all in a sequence of complex operations stemming from severe health problems that had death lurking around corner, the U.K.'s Daily Mail reports.
A diagnosis of incurable cystic fibrosis at only 6 weeks old was the beginning and early start to John's health troubles, and it was followed by liver failure at age 14. |
The Daily Mails reports that during her liver transplant surgery, doctors realized the urgency of the situation, later explaining that had she not received the donor organ, it was likely she would have died as soon as three days later.
The following year, after enrolling in neuroscience courses at Cardiff University, John was told she would need two more transplants. This time it was her heart and lungs.
With the surgeries a success and one college degree under her belt, John was accepted into the university's College of Medicine.
She had her last medical scare several years later. Doctors discovered the medication she was taking in order to prevent her body from rejecting the transplanted organs had caused renal failure and John would need a kidney transplant to survive, the Daily Mail reports.
This most recent surgery, where her father donated a healthy kidney, came just three years ago and coincided with the halfway mark in John's path to fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor.
"My life has been a bit of a roller coaster, and it's taken me a long time to get here, but I got here in the end," John told the Daily Mail of her 14 years spent in medical school. "I never thought this day would finally come. It's such a huge milestone for me."
As a July graduate, John is set to begin work as a junior doctor at Neville Hall Hospital in Abergavenny, U.K.