On Sept. 11, 2016, the University of Washington Medicine (UW) announced that a medical team became the first in the Pacific Northwest to transplant an intestine in an adult patient. Savanah Oberts, 26, of Lakebay, Washington, received a donor intestine and a liver at UW Medical Center in Seattle.

Oberts was the first adult to receive an intestinal transplant in the Pacific Northwest. Seven others, all children 10 or younger, underwent the procedure at Seattle Children’s.

Oberts had suffered from malrotation of the intestine, a congenital condition in which the intestine is less affixed within the abdomen, so at any point it can twist and cut off its blood supply. Oberts was unaffected until five years ago, while attending college in Bellingham, Washington. Her bowel twisted and died and needed to be removed in an emergency surgery.