‘Fight to survive’: How an Australian-first transplant made Brendan’s ‘miserable’ life amazing

Fourteen years after he survived Australia’s first intestine transplant, Brendan Cole likes to savour the simple pleasures.

Every year on his birthday, and on Christmas Day, his mother-in-law Rosalie Dougherty serves him a home-made pavlova.

Loving life: Brendan Cole with his wife, Kirrily, and sons Braxton, 12, and Callen, 9.Credit: Emma Cross

It’s delicious. But it’s also a symbol of the life and freedoms he now enjoys.

Before Cole had the extraordinary multi-visceral operation – receiving a donor small intestine, liver and pancreas – that saved his life, what was left of his defective digestive system was shutting down.

Sugary treats like pavlova could make him sick, and were not allowed.

Most of Cole’s diet was liquid nutrients fed to him intravenously. He was hooked up to it for 13 hours a day and spent most of his time at home.

Brendan Cole shortly after the multi-visceral transplant in 2010. He says was unaccustomed to feeling so good after an operation.

Cole, 47, was born with malfunctioning intestines. There was no cure, and he’d have intermittent surgeries to remove sections of the organs that died.

Cole said by 2010, he had 20 centimetres of functional bowel, his liver was “packing up” and his veins were collapsing. He couldn’t work, and food went right through him.

The 12-hour transplant was conducted by 20 doctors at Melbourne’s Austin Hospital, starting on the evening of July 2 and extending into the following day.

The Age reported head surgeon Professor Bob Jones saying he was very pleased with how it went, describing it as “the last frontier in organ replacement”.

How The Sunday Age reported on the Australian-first surgery in 2010.Credit: The Age

Speaking to journalists after the transplant, Professor Jones described Cole’s life before the surgery as “one of the most miserable existences you could have”.

The article quoted Cole’s then-girlfriend Kirrily saying he had been positive until seconds before he went into surgery, when he told her he’d prepared a CD of songs for his funeral.

Interviewed briefly after surgery, Cole said he had asked the nurses to pinch him because he couldn’t believe he was alive.

When The Age caught up with Cole recently, he remembered thinking the transplant hadn’t happened, “because after surgeries I’d had in the past, I felt like I’d been hit by a truck. But this time I felt fantastic”.

Cole described life since the transplant as “amazing” and said he was thankful.

He and Kirrily moved to Horsham in Victoria’s north-west in 2011, to be close to Kirrily’s family. He started working as a postie, which he still loves. The couple bought a house, and in 2013 married in Las Vegas.

In 2014, their son Callen (CJ) was born, and in 2020, they welcomed their nephew Braxton, now 12, as another son.

Cole is now secretary of a Horsham Apex club and enjoys watching his sons play football and basketball.

He often thinks of his organ donor and their family, because “without them, I wouldn’t be here”.

He is proud he was brave and had the transplant. “I fought to survive. I’m a survivor. I don’t give up.”

“I could have rolled over and said, ‘I don’t want to do it, it’s too hard’, and died.

“But life’s got so much more to give if you just take the chance and live life.”

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