Blonde and freckle-faced, Jones waited 44 days for the operation. Her donor organs came from a 4-year-old New York girl who was killed in a traffic accident days earlier. Without the operation Jones would have died from the damage done to both organs.
Over the years, she made many trips back to Pittsburgh for follow-up care. Well-wishers would often give her spending money, which she spent on get-well gifts for other hospitalized children. Family and friends described her as always looking out for other people.
Jones was outdoorsy and active but never comfortable with all the attention her transplants brought her. At one point, eager to get on with her life, she threatened to kick a physician unless he discharged her.
Stormie Dawn Jones Stormie Jones is shown during a check up at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Dallas, Tex., May 30, 1984. Stormie celebrates her 7th birthday on Thursday at the Dallas medical facility. (AP Photo/Pool) (AP)
Stormie Dawn Jones, Lois Jones Stormie Jones arrives May 15, 1984 at the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport and is accompanied by Bert and Ernie and other dolls who share her wheelchair. Stormie underwent simultaneous liver and heart transplant operations in February in Pittsburgh and was returning home. Stormie's mother Lois holds bouquet of flowers at right. (AP Photo/Bill Janscha) (Bill Janscha/AP)
Stormie Dawn Jones, Lois Jones The world's first heart and liver transplant patient, Stormie Jones, sits with her mother Lois at a press conference at Pittsburgh Children's Hospital, March 7, 1984. Stormie underwent the historic surgery three and a half weeks ago. (AP Photo/Gene Puskar) (Gene Puskar/AP)
Stormie Dawn Jones, Lois Jones The world's first heart and liver transplant patient Stormie Jones sits with her mother Lois at a press conference at Pittsburgh Children's Hospital, March 7, 1984. Stormie underwent the historic surgery three and a half weeks ago. (AP Photo/Gene Puskar) (Gene Puskar/AP)
Stormie Dawn Jones, Burt Aaron Stormie Jones hugs her grandfather Burt Aaron, and some dolls she received as presents, after her arrival at the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport, May 14, 1984. Stormie, age 6, underwent the world's first simultaneous liver and heart transplant at a Pittsburgh hospital on Valentine's Day. (AP Photo/Bill Janscha) (Bill Janscha/AP)
Stormie Dawn Jones Heart and liver transplant patient Stormie Jones, 6½, smiles for a pre-surgery photo in Pittsburgh, Feb. 1984. Stormie underwent a heart and liver transplant operation at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo) (AP)
Lois Jones, Donnie Millsap Lois Jones, mother of heart and liver transplant patient Stormie Jones, smiles with her fiancé Donnie Millsap during a press conference at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, Feb. 15, 1984. Stormie, 6½, underwent what doctors say is the world's first heart and liver transplant. (AP Photo/Fred Vuich) (Fred Vuich/AP)
Stormie Dawn Jones, Lois Jones Six-year-old Stormie Jones of Cumby, Texas, the world's first heart and liver transplant recipient, is surrounded by media, March 8, 1984 at Pittsburgh Children's Hospital. Stormie underwent the historic surgery three weeks ago. Second from left in the rear of photo is Stormie's mother Lois. (AP Photo/Gene Puskar) (Gene Puskar/AP)
Stormie Dawn Jones, Lois Jones Stormie Jones arrives May 15, 1984 at the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport and is accompanied by Bert and Ernie and other dolls who share her wheelchair. Stormie underwent simultaneous liver and heart transplant operations in February in Pittsburgh and was returning home. Stormie's mother Lois holds bouquet of flowers at right. (AP Photo/Bill Janscha) (Bill Janscha/AP)
Stormie Dawn Jones Stormie Jones, 7, who underwent the world's first simultaneous heart and liver transplant, Feb. 14, 1984 hugs a Cabbage Patch doll at her temporary Pittsburgh home. The blonde, brown-eyed girl is expected to return home to Cumby, Texas, on Monday. She will return to Pittsburgh's Children's Hospital for checkups and doctors say her new organs are "functioning normally" and she "is normal." (AP Photo/Fred Vuich) (Fred Vuich/AP)
Stormie Dawn Jones Stormie Jones, 7, who underwent the world's first simultaneous heart and liver transplant in February, sits in the cockpit of the plane that will carry her home to Texas at the Greater Pittsburgh International Airport, May 14, 1984. Stormie will return to Pittsburgh's Children's Hospital for checkups and doctors there say her new organs are "functioning normally." (AP Photo/Fred Vuich) (Fred Vuich/AP)
Stormie Dawn Jones, Marsi Roberts Stormie Jones gets her blood pressure checked by nurse Marsi Roberts, May 30, 1984 at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Dallas, Tex. Stormie celebrates her 7th birthday on Thursday at the Dallas medical facility. (AP Photo/Pool) (AP)
Stormie Jones Twelve-year-old Stormie Jones, right, saved by the world's first heart-liver transplant on Valentines Day 1984, sits with her mother Lois Purcell, in the waiting room of her doctors office in Fort Worth, Tex., on Feb. 9, 1990. (AP Photo/Lee Baker) (AP)
Henry T. Bahnson Henry T. Bahnson was Professor of Surgery and Chair of the Surgery Department at the School of Medicine. He served from 1963 to 1987. He continued to serve on the medical faculty until the time of his death on January 23, 2003.
(Picture taken in 1965) (Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System)
Henry T. Bahnson Henry T. Bahnson was Professor of Surgery and Chair of the Surgery Department at the School of Medicine. He served from 1963 to 1987. He continued to serve on the medical faculty until the time of his death on January 23, 2003.
(Picture taken between 1975-1985) (Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System)
Dr Thomas Starzl FILE - This Nov. 10, 1989 file photo shows transplant pioneer Dr. Thomas E. Starzl as he oversees a liver transplant operation at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh. A release at the request of the Starzl family by the University of Pittburgh Medical Center says Dr. Starzl died at the age of 90, Sat., March 4, 2017 at his home in Pittsburgh. He was 90. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) (Gene J. Puskar/AP)
Thomas E. Starzl Thomas E. Starzl, pioneer of liver transplantation, came to Pitt in 1981 as a Professor of Surgery in the School of Medicine. He oversaw the development of the University of Pittsburgh Transplantation Institute which was later named for him. (Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System)
THOMAS STARZL Transplant surgery pioneer Dr. Thomas Starzl holds his dog, Ophelia, on his lap in his office in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh on June 17, 1999. Now 73 and absent from an operating room for nine years, Starzl is excited about his research into why some transplants and their new bodies learn to get along without anti-rejection drugs. He calls the process "chimerism." (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) (KEITH SRAKOCIC/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Thomas Starzl Dr. Thomas Starzl of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center delivers an acceptance speech after receiving the 2012 Lasker DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for developing liver transplantation, an intervention that has restored normal life to thousands of patients with end-stage liver disease, Friday, Sept. 21, 2012 in New York. The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, has championed the greatest breakthroughs in medical research for 66 years. The three awardsrecognized as the most prestigious medical research awards in the US honor seven awardees whose innovative work has led to dramatic advances that will prevent disease and prolong life. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) (Mary Altaffer/AP)
Thomas E. Starzl Thomas E. Starzl, pioneer of liver transplantation, came to Pitt in 1981 as a Professor of Surgery in the School of Medicine. He oversaw the development of the University of Pittsburgh Transplantation Institute which was later named for him. (November 1985) (Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System)
After a bout with hepatitis in 1989, Jones’ liver was so irreparably damaged that she received a second liver transplant at Children’s Hospital.
Her historic Valentine’s Day surgery gained Jones years of life, but she was flown back to Children’s Hospital after developing flu-like symptoms in 1990. Her condition deteriorated and she died at the age of 13 after having another heart attack.
Doctors suspected that the sore throat and low-grade fever were indicative of an infection that attacked her transplanted heart and triggered the attack.
Dr. Starzl and Dr. Bahnson were longtime colleagues and friends who, together, helped establish Pittsburgh as a center for organ transplantation surgery and research. They were such close friends that Dr. Bahnson served as Dr. Starzl’s best man at his wedding in 1954.
Dr. Bahnson was born in North Carolina and studied medicine at Harvard Medical School. Following graduation, he completed his residency at John Hopkins in Baltimore, where he met Dr. Starzl. At his funeral, Dr. Starzl said of Dr. Bahnson, “He was the best surgeon there (John Hopkins), maybe the best surgeon they had ever produced. He was a great hero then, just like always.”
Dr. Bahnson specialized in heart surgery and became the Chairman of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School in 1963. Striving to build the small program into a premier center for surgery and research, Dr. Bahnson aggressively recruited some of the best doctors in the world. One of his biggest successes was bringing Dr. Starzl to Pittsburgh in 1981.
“He was the very soul of our institution, and one of the country’s most important medical leaders,” said Dr. Arthur Levine, the dean of the School of Medicine. “Without Hank, this school never would have achieved its current international status.”
Doctors from around the world came to Pittsburgh to learn from both men. It is estimated that about 90% of all transplant centers worldwide are headed by surgeons who trained under Dr. Starzl or under Starzl-trained surgeons.
Dr. Bahnson retired in 1987 and died in 2003 at the age of 82.