Briana Dery, 33 of Twining Mich. is photographed with Dr. Shunji Nagai, surgical director of Liver, Intestine and Multivisceral Transplant, and Dr. Dean Kim, surgical director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplant, both of the Henry Ford Transplant Institute during a press conference at the Clara Ford Pavilion in Detroit. Credit: Everett McMillan Cislo, Henry Ford Health
After nearly two decades of life-threatening illness, repeated complications, and organ failure, 33-year-old Briana Dery of Twining, Mich., is looking ahead to a healthy future, after successfully undergoing one of the rarest and most complex procedures in modern medicine. On January 14, 2026, she became the first person in Michigan to receive a new intestinal transplant and a new kidney in a single combined transplant operation.
Dery's health challenges began in 2008 after a mission trip to Honduras, when she contracted an illness that never resolved. By 2010 she could no longer tolerate food. Doctors later diagnosed her with chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction caused by visceral myopathy—a rare disorder that paralyzes the intestines and prevents the absorption of nutrients.
For years, Dery relied on intravenous nutrition and endured repeated infections. In 2017, she received an intestinal transplant at Henry Ford Hospital. But over time, the transplanted organ began to fail. The prolonged illness, combined with years of medical treatment, ultimately led to kidney failure as well.
