Graham Cunningham

Graham Cunningham was a patient at Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital with end-stage liver disease and heart disease.

Cirrhosis and Heart Disease
Graham presented with cirrhosis seven years prior to his most recent hospitalization. Within the following seven years, he had gone into end-stage liver disease and developed heart disease. Heart surgery would have caused his liver to fail, so they had to wait until a liver became available to transplant. Both surgeries were planned for the same day, with the valve replacement first and then the liver transplant.

The flight bringing his liver was delayed by rain, which worried Hank, but Graham believed that everything happened for a reason.

The liver arrived and was inserted successfully, but when they went to close his chest, Shane noticed some bleeding around the liver. They attempted to stop the bleeding, but Graham started to reject the liver. He was put back on the transplant list, but they were warned that in his condition, he was unlikely to get one. They estimated that he had about a week to live.

Carol
When he was first diagnosed with cirrhosis, Graham was married to a woman named Carol. The reason they lived in Seattle was that she forced him to move to be closer to her family. They were married for 30 years.

Hank
Graham felt it was fortunate that Carol had forced them to move to Seattle as that is where he ended up meeting Hank, his future husband. Hank felt that they should have met a lot sooner and was saddened when Graham joked about the liver being delayed, as he didn't like Graham joking about losing the one thing that could get them their 30 years together. When he found out he only had about a week to live, Graham said they'd make that week count.

Professional
Graham and Hank both had good relationships with the doctors, even given them gifts upon their arrival.

Notes and Trivia

 * He likes to have an east-facing window.
 * He was 65 at the time of his latest hospitalization.