Dick Cheney Recovering After Getting a New Heart
Former Vice President Dick Cheney had a heart transplant on Saturday after 20 months on a waiting list, and was recovering in a Virginia hospital, a statement from his office said.
Mr. Cheney, 71, who has suffered five heart attacks and was in end-stage heart failure, was recovering in the intensive care unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va.
“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,” said the statement from an aide, Kara Ahern. Mr. Cheney and his family thanked doctors and staff at that hospital and at George Washington University Hospital in Washington for “their continued outstanding care,” the statement said.
Mr. Cheney’s wait for a new heart was not unusual, though it appeared to be longer than the average wait, which has varied in recent years from six months to a year, according to several studies. In June 2010, 3,153 patients were on the waiting list for a heart transplant and 80 were awaiting a heart-lung transplant, the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation reported last year.
Patients on the list generally have to be ready to rush to the hospital when a suitable donor is found, so there is little notice before a transplant takes place. It is not unusual for recipients not to know the identity of their donor; notification is determined by the rules of organ donation networks and the wishes of the donor’s family.
In 2010, the former vice president had a left ventricular assist device, a battery-powered heart pump, implanted by surgeons. Intended as a temporary measure to keep Mr. Cheney alive until he could get a donated heart, it was the latest in a series of operations over several decades on his heart and leg veins. He suffered his first heart attack at the age of 37 in 1978, as he was campaigning for Congress; a decade later, he underwent quadruple bypass surgery.
In public appearances since he left office in 2009, Mr. Cheney has appeared gaunt and increasingly frail. Last August, he published an autobiography, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir,” written with the help of his daughter Liz Cheney, in which he reports that a team of doctors assessed his heart condition before Mr. Bush chose him as his vice presidential running mate. He also describes writing a letter of resignation shortly after taking office and giving it to his counsel, David S. Addington, to be delivered to President George W. Bush if he were incapacitated.