David Woods of Detroit received a special present for Christmas. Woods, a 34-year old brittle, insulin-dependent diabetic whose kidneys failed in June 2000, became the first patient to receive a simultaneous pancreas/kidney transplant at Harper University Hospital (HUH) on Dec. 24, 2003. Woods left the hospital on New Year's Eve completely off insulin and no longer requiring dialysis, with normal renal function.

Transplant surgeons Miguel S. West, M.D., FACS and Scott A. Gruber M.D., Ph.D., FACS, FCP performed the procedure. Among them, the transplant surgeons had previously performed over 225 pancreas transplants before coming to Harper, more than any other program in the state of Michigan.

Gruber came to Harper in July 2001 as Director of its Organ Transplant Program and Professor and Chief, Section of Transplant Surgery at Wayne State University School of Medicine, after starting successful pancreas transplant programs at both Albany Medical College and the University of Texas at Houston Medical School. He completed his transplant fellowship training at the University of Minnesota, the busiest pancreas transplant program in the country. Gruber subsequently recruited West, who trained at the University of Minnesota and previously served as director of the pancreas transplant program at Howard University.