A Mount Sinai Patient Is First in New York State to Receive a Triple Organ Transplant

23 years ago, Mack Godbee, 64, was given a heart transplant at The Mount Sinai Hospital due to complications from sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease that can damage the heart muscle. He was told he would probably need another transplant after 16 years, but remarkably, it was an additional seven years before he needed that new heart.

“They said it was only supposed to last 16 years, so I outlived my heart,” he told CBS News.

However, by the beginning of 2024, his heart’s condition began to deteriorate, and he developed breathlessness and severe fatigue. Mack, as a member of the Volunteer Ambulance Corps for 40 years, had taught his children how to administer CPR. In August 2024, he suffered a cardiac arrest outside his home, and his daughter was able to give him CPR—and save his life.

“She came outside because I wasn't answering her and saw my legs hanging out of the car. So she pulled me out of the car and started CPR in the middle of the street,” Mack says.

He was rushed to a local hospital, where doctors stabilized his heart and inserted a defibrillator. However, it was clear that the insertion of the device was only a temporary measure. In September, he went to see Noah Moss, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and a specialist in advanced heart failure and transplant. Dr. Moss has overseen Mack’s care for the past nine years.

Heart was growing weaker

“Anytime someone suffers a cardiac arrest, it's just a sign of things to come,” Dr. Moss says. “The defibrillator was inserted to help protect him against another cardiac arrest, meaning, if it were to occur, to shock him out of it. But his heart was getting progressively weaker.”

By December, Dr. Moss felt that Mack’s condition had become severe enough for him to be put on the list for a new heart transplant, and was he admitted to The Mount Sinai Hospital.

“When I saw him in December, I was very worried about his condition,” Dr. Moss says. “He was very short of breath. He had worsening kidney function and imaging revealed a cirrhotic (scarred) liver, which means significant liver dysfunction.”

Issues with kidney and liver function are a relatively common complication developed by heart transplant patients; in Mack’s case he would need a triple organ transplant in order to survive.

The transplant team in Mack’s case was led by Anelechi Anyanwu, MD, Vice Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery for the Mount Sinai Health System, and Sander S. Florman, MD, the Charles Miller, MD Professor of Surgery and Director of the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute at Mount Sinai.

“This wasn't the case where we had to tell him something that he didn't understand.” Dr. Florman says. “He really understood what it meant to be going through multiple surgeries. He knew what it meant to get the gift of life and to have a second chance, and he had a lot left to live for—his grandchildren, his family.”

While waiting for transplant organs to become available, and to avoid any further deterioration in Mack’s condition, Dr. Anyanwu inserted two temporary pumps into both sides of his heart. The procedure was carried out on December 30.

20-hour procedure, by two teams

Eleven days later, three viable transplant organs became available from the same donor, and the triple transplant went ahead on January 10. The heart transplant was carried out first by Dr. Anyanwu and his specialist team of anesthesiologists and nurses. As this was Mack’s second heart transplant, it was a long complex surgery: the surgeons first had to carefully remove the previously transplanted heart before they could reimplant the new one.

The teams then switched over to Dr. Florman and his team to perform the liver transplant and kidney transplants. The entire procedure took approximately 20 hours (10 hours for the heart transplant, eight hours for the liver transplant, and two hours for the kidney transplant).

Triple organ transplants are rare and highly complex procedures, and there have been less than 60 conducted in the United States since transplantation tracking started in 1987. Mack’s procedure was the first carried out in New York State.

“It was a tour de force that can only be done at a few places that have real expertise in all areas,” Dr. Florman explains. “This doesn't only include the surgical techniques, it includes the medical management, the anesthesia capabilities. Many places have teams that do liver transplant and heart transplant, but the ability to coordinate all of that together is really quite extraordinary.”

Mack spent a week in the intensive care unit, followed by three weeks in recovery. During that time, he received regular visits from Dr. Anyanwu and Dr. Florman, the heart team, and the liver and kidney teams. He also underwent intensive physical therapy to help build up his strength before being discharged.

“It really takes a village to get a patient through a procedure like this,” Dr. Anyanwu told CBS News.

‘He's doing unbelievably well’

Mack was discharged in early February and has been making steady progress. For the first three months, he returned weekly to The Mount Sinai Hospital for biopsies to ensure there was no rejection of the heart, as well as regular visits for blood testing of his new kidney and liver.

“When I first started going back to the hospital for my appointments, I would take a walker with me, just in case I needed it,” Mack says. “By April, I just stopped using it and started walking on my own. I would walk up and down the stairs, walk around the house, do my regular chores. I knew I was on my way to good health, because before the transplant, I couldn't even walk up the stairs.”

As of summer 2025, there have been no major complications, and he has returned to work and to his duties as with the Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

Dr. Moss thinks that Mack has made a remarkable recovery from an extremely complex and rare procedure.

“When you meet someone like Mack, whose goal is to give back to his community and to help other people, everyone felt that they needed to find a way to help him. And he's doing unbelievably well. He's back at work, he's enjoying time with his family. And it is more than it just being a triple organ transplant—it was a triple organ transplant carried out on someone who already had a heart transplant 23 years ago.”

Mack is extremely grateful for the level of care and consideration he received from the doctors and the team at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

“All the doctors were great. There were a lot of them looking after me, and they all took the time to introduce themselves and get my opinion on everything. Dr. Moss even gave me his phone number and told me I could call him 24/7,” Mack says. “And I can't say enough about the nurses. They were awesome. Everything I needed was right there, they made sure I took my medication every day and they spoiled the hell out of me!”