Heart transplant op for Cheney at 71
Source: Agencies |
March 26, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
FORMER US Vice President Dick Cheney has had a heart transplant, after five heart attacks over the past 25 years and countless medical procedures to keep him going.
Cheney, 71, had waited nearly two years for a heart, the gift of an unknown donor.
"Although the former vice president and his family do not know the identity of the donor, they will be forever grateful for this lifesaving gift," aide Kara Ahern said.
Cheney is recovering at the intensive care unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Virginia after surgery on Saturday.
More than 3,100 Americans are currently on the national waiting list for a heart transplant. Just over 2,300 heart transplants were performed last year, 332 of them on patients over the age of 65, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. And 330 people died while waiting.
More than 70 percent of heart transplant recipients live for at least another five years, although survival is a bit lower for those over 65.
Cheney suffered his last heart attack in 2010, his fifth since the age of 37. He then had surgery to have a small pump installed to help his heart keep working.
Prominent cardiologist Dr Eric Topol of Scripps Health in California raised the issue of whether someone so old should have received a new heart.
But Dr William Zoghbi, of Methodist Hospital's DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center in Texas, said: "It is not too old. Age is really not a factor."
Zoghbi said Cheney may even fare better than younger people whose immune systems more actively fight new organs.
Cheney, 71, had waited nearly two years for a heart, the gift of an unknown donor.
"Although the former vice president and his family do not know the identity of the donor, they will be forever grateful for this lifesaving gift," aide Kara Ahern said.
Cheney is recovering at the intensive care unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Virginia after surgery on Saturday.
More than 3,100 Americans are currently on the national waiting list for a heart transplant. Just over 2,300 heart transplants were performed last year, 332 of them on patients over the age of 65, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. And 330 people died while waiting.
More than 70 percent of heart transplant recipients live for at least another five years, although survival is a bit lower for those over 65.
Cheney suffered his last heart attack in 2010, his fifth since the age of 37. He then had surgery to have a small pump installed to help his heart keep working.
Prominent cardiologist Dr Eric Topol of Scripps Health in California raised the issue of whether someone so old should have received a new heart.
But Dr William Zoghbi, of Methodist Hospital's DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center in Texas, said: "It is not too old. Age is really not a factor."
Zoghbi said Cheney may even fare better than younger people whose immune systems more actively fight new organs.
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