Dick Cheney Considering Heart Transplant

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Former Vice President Dick Cheney's three decades of heart trouble and five heart attacks have left him and his doctors with a very serious decision to make; is his externally-powered, state-of-the-art heart pump sufficient to keep his ticker ticking, or should the soon-to-be 70-year-old get a transplant.

In an interview with NBC News set to be aired Tuesday, Cheney says he hasn't "made a decision yet."

He touts the battery-powered pump currently used to boost blood flow around his body as a "wondrous device. It's really a miracle of modern technology."

The Left Ventricular Assist Device is usually implanted as a stopgap measure to keep patients healthy until a heart transplant can be preformed.

"What's happened over time is the technology's gotten better and better and we've gotten more and more experience with people living with this technology. So I'll have to make a decision at some point whether or not I want to go for a transplant. But we haven't addressed that yet," Cheney says in the interview.

His ongoing health problems have done little to soften the political mind of a Republican power-player.

Asked whether he still believed President Obama would fail to secure a second term in office, Cheney replied immediately, "I do."

"I think he embarked upon a course of action when he became president that did not have as much support as he thought it did," says Cheney, pointing to the bitter debate over Mr. Obama's health care reform law -- which House Republicans have vowed to try and repeal.

Republicans Target Health Care Repeal

President George W. Bush's right-hand man acknowledges marginal recent gains by Mr. Obama in national popularity polls, saying the current leader likely "learned a lesson or two" from his midterm election "shellacking," but "I think he'll be a one term president."

[concerned4us2]

He has been heartless all this time.What does he need with one now?
I suppose he could scrounge the battlefield he helped create in Iraq but those(soldiers) hearts would be rejected in his body because they belonged to people who served a different master than the one Cheney serves. There is only one heart that can save you now,Dick. Otherwise....

[diana_mccutcheon2003]

I sure believe him and Bush were behind all of that!

[diana_mccutcheon2003]

He sure needs one! And while they're at it the can give him a brain one, too! Because he lacks that, too!

[dadrees-2009]

Is there a quarry with hard enough granite for old Darth Vader?

[erichsh]

The level of vile, visceral liberal hatred is out there for all to see just in this one page of posts. Some openly wishing death on Cheney, one guy accusing Cheney of being personally responsible for 9/11, some equating him with animals. Yet I'll bet every last one of you was out there screaming about Palin's so-called hate-filled rhetoric - or conservative talk-show hosts, or the Tea Party movement, whatever - pick your evil villain. You could try something radical instead - take issue with and debate Cheney's political views and policies, rather than spew forth your personal, hate-filled attacks.

[concerned4us2]

So how big is your "payroll"?

[babooph]

50 tears ago,a brain transplant for him would have helped the USA....

[whipage]

Dick,
All I csn really say is, Dick, you suck. You and your pals murdered thousands of Americans at home on September 11th, 2001 and you have killed countless more around the globe...all in the name of power and greed. Enjoy the time you have left, you pathetic excuse for a human...we all know what you did, and may you be sleeplessly tormented for all eternity. Perhaps city hall can dig you up a used **** pump to move all that bile inside your withering facade. However you go, Dick, may it me oh-so-long and oh-so-painful and miserable...just like you, Dick.

[erichsh]

So you believe Cheney personally ordered 9/11? C'mon, admit it.

[diana_mccutcheon2003]

I agree with you!

[mikelpond]

I think we need that heart for a human. How about a pig heart; probably more of a direct replacement anyway. Or a sewer pump capable of pumping all that bile around?

[whipage]

Excellent!!!

[erichsh]

And yet guys like you accuse conservatives of hatred. yeesh.

[dbl11s]

Just a question, how much will Dick Cheney's transplant cost the U.S. taxpayers? Just more proof of the hypocracy of the GOP, sort of like the freshman congressman who needed to know when his health insurance would start.

[erichsh]

Rush Limbaugh pays for all his medical care and has no insurance. Does that make you more respectful of him? I didn't think so.

[lucifersshadow]

I got a good idea for you Cheney: Take George out hunting with you; that's you organ donor . . . since you two are so much alike, I am sure it will be compatable. A brain implant might also be a good idea.

[erichsh]

Another raging, hate-filled liberal lunatic, suggesting death to a conservative leader? So were you all over the Palin story accusing conservatives of hate speech the other day?