Three surgeons performing a liver transplant operation on an eight-year old boy. Etching by John Bellany, 1989.

In 1988 Bellany received a transplanted liver at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. The surgeon was Professor Roy Calne. "A year after the operation he was back at Addenbrooke's in the same theatre, drawing a liver transplant. The recipient was a boy of eight and the medical team was the same one that had operated on him. The little boy's life was saved to the sound of Mozart's Magic flute. It was one of the most moving experiences of his life and he was astonished by what he saw: 'Just the skill of these people, standing up all that time, working with that intensity. The stitching! I couldn't believe the speed of it, like someone drawing frenetically. How they can do it day after day, week after week. These people are underrated. So many bad things happen - let's hear sometimes about some of the great things that happen.' The drawings acted as a preparatory studies for a suite of etchings. The boy's health has flourished."--MacEwen, loc. cit.