Pretty sure I remember reading that he was literally days from death from liver failure, when he finally got his liver transplant. I therefore suspect it wasn’t

Pretty sure I remember reading that he was literally days from death from liver failure, when he finally got his liver transplant. I therefore suspect it wasn’t trying to get a normal liver for some sort of experimental islet-cell transplant – it was just about survival. Whether his liver was failing due to metastatic cancer or complications of the Whipples’, who knows – but I suspect the former, considering what ultimately happened. You’re right he beat the odds, time-wise... but this is what being a billionaire with a team of world-class oncologists at your beck and call will do for you. He had full genome sequencing of his tumour before it was widely accessible, and it’s reasonable to assume that based on the results of this, his team will have tried a variety of atypical and possibly experimental treatments.