NATION IN BRIEF : PENNSYLVANIA : Surgeons Optimistic on Triple Transplant

A day after she became the first transplant patient to receive a heart, liver and kidney, physicians attending Cindy Martin at Presbyterian-University Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pa., said she may be able to go home in three to four weeks. Martin, 26, was in critical condition under intensive care after the 21 1/2-hour operation. Dr. John Armitage, who performed the heart transplant surgery, said: “Right now, her organ function looks encouraging. She’s awake and writing us notes.” The doctors said they planned to begin weaning her from a respirator, and that post-surgical infection would pose the greatest risk to her recovery. Although multiple-organ transplants have been done before, this was the first involving the heart, liver and a kidney, Armitage said.