MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- A proposal to combine the Memphis and Nashville transplant organizations has won support from Shelby County commissioners after they asked about a well-known executive's liver transplant.

Commissioner Terry Roland questioned whether Apple CEO Steve Jobs received his 2009 transplant because he bought a house owned by the chancellor of the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center. UT and Memphis University Hospital are partners in the transplant institute that treated Jobs.

The Memphis Daily News reported that institute director Dr. James Eason said Jobs got the surgery because he was the sickest person on the transplant list and didn't need to own property in Memphis. Jobs died in October of cancer.

Commissioners voted last week to endorse the institute's proposal that Mid-South Transplant Foundation merge with Tennessee Donor Services.