Cheney home 10 days after heart transplant
Former Vice President Dick Cheney, seen at home with his wife Lynne in a photo released by his office, was released from Inova Fairfax Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute 10 days after receiving a new heart from an unknown donor, April 3, 2012.
(AP) WASHINGTON - Former Vice President Dick Cheney was released from the hospital Tuesday, 10 days after getting a new heart, his office said.
Cheney, 71, received the organ from an unknown donor on March 24 at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va.
"As he leaves the hospital, the former vice president and his family want to again express their deep gratitude to the donor and the donor's family for this remarkable gift," aide Kara Ahern said in a statement.
Cheney waited nearly two years for the transplant. His lifelong history of heart disease includes five heart attacks, with the first one striking him at age 37 and the most recent one in 2010.
Dick Cheney receives heart transplant
Dick Cheney transplant surgery renews age debate
That year, Cheney also had surgery to implant a small pump to help keep his weakened and diseased heart beating. The "left ventricular assist device," or LVAD, helps a person live a fairly normal life while awaiting a heart transplant, although some people receive it as permanent therapy. It was one the few steps left, short of a transplant, to keep Cheney alive in the face of what he had acknowledged was "increasing congestive heart failure."
In January 2011, Cheney said he was getting by on the battery-powered device and hadn't made a decision on a transplant. But he said he'd "have to make a decision at some point whether I want to go for a transplant."
More than 3,100 people are on a national waiting list to receive a new heart. Just over 2,300 heart transplants were performed last year, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Some 330 people died while waiting.
According to UNOS, 332 people over age 65 received a new heart last year. The majority of transplants occur in 50- to 64-year-olds. Cheney's surgery led some to question whether he was too old to be given a new heart.
The odds of survival are good. More than 70 percent of heart transplant patients live at least five years, although survival is a bit lower for people over 65.
Cheney was President George W. Bush's vice president for eight years, beginning in 2001, and was a lightning rod for criticism. Opponents said he often advocated a belligerent U.S. stance in world affairs during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Popular in Politics
- For GOP, scandals could be an electoral plus - or minus 287 Comments
- IRS targeting overlooked biggest soft money groups
- Officials on Benghazi: "We made mistakes, but without malice" 315 Comments
- Republicans use IRS scandal to tar Obamacare
- Where is the Benghazi cover-up Republicans promised? 397 Comments
- Ousted IRS chief: "I did not mislead" the American people 260 Comments
- Why Obama should worry that current scandals might impact 2016 233 Comments
- FBI seeks anonymous source behind Menendez allegations
Cheney (as well as his wife Lynne, as a "talking head" for years before the Bush/Cheney team got us into 2 wars and the Great Recession) is as responsible for the mess our country is in as much, if not more, than that idiot George W. Bush. Enough is enough.
Get well and come back to explain to the Liberal:
2000-2008 National Debt 5.5 Trillion to 10 Trillion, a raise of 4.5 Trillion in 8 years.
2009-Now 10 Trillion to 15.7 Trillion, a raise of 5.7 Trillion in only 3 years
National Spending vs. GDP - 1960-2008 Average 30%-36%, (same in 1997 under Clinton, as 2007 under Bush), now 41% - The highest in the History of the U.S.
Federal Deficit 2008 - 400 Million Now - 1,500 Million
& oh yes,
Every National Unemployment Rate figure under President Bush for 8 years is LOWER than AND National Unemployment Rate figure under President Obama
It lets the rest of America know you!
Thanks.