He got a transplant that could kill him any way, if he were not so lucky.

New Zealand-born broadcaster Derryn Hinch, 67, risked suffering AIDS or hepatitis when he went under the knife for a new liver last year.

The revelation was shown in Nine Network's 60 Minutes, which also featured the family of Hinch's donor, Heath Gardner.

The Austin Hospital medical team took seven hours to remove and replace Hinch's liver, which had been damaged by both alcohol and cancer.

Minutes before the surgery, Surgeon Professor Bob Jones told Hinch that his donor's troubled past could give him AIDS or hepatitis, but Hinch still said, "Let's do it," adding he has been a gambler all his life.

After having received a photo of his liver donor, Hinch said Gardner "looked like Benji Veniaman from Underbelly - a skinhead covered in tattoos with his girlfriend half naked, like something out of Animal Kingdom."

Gardner's mother, Lynda, said she did not think twice about donating her son's liver, as well as his other vital organs, which saved two other lives.

"I didn't think twice - it made something good out of bad."

Hinch thanked Gardner's family for allowing the transplant to take place, and to Heath, he said: "I don't care what you have done or who you are - thank you."

"I did not know him in life, but I have sort of got to know him in death. By him doing this ... some good came out of it," Hinch told 60 Minutes.