Former Vice President Dick Cheney He battled heart disease for most of his adult life, and his life was prolonged in part by a heart transplant in 2012.
Cheney, who died on Monday Due to complications from pneumonia and heart and vascular disease, he suffered his first heart attack at the unusually young age of 37. He would have to survive another four years before his heart failed enough to qualify for this transplant.
Heart disease is the nation's number one killer, and Cheney's decades of health problems illustrate how heart disease can accumulate, as well as the different treatments.
Over the years, Cheney has undergone quadruple bypass surgery to redirect blood flow around clogged heart arteries, as well as less invasive angioplasty to clear out the arteries. He had a pacemaker implanted to control his heartbeat. He also had problems with the blood vessels in his legs.
Heart attacks damage the heart muscle, which ultimately makes it difficult for it to work properly. After Cheney's fifth heart attack in 2010, he admitted that he had “increased congestive heart failure.” He received another implant, a small pump called a left ventricular assist device, or LVAD. This device took over the work of the main pumping chamber of his heart and was powered by batteries carried in a fanny pack.
Then, in March 2012, at age 71, Cheney received a heart transplant. Like him, more than 70% of heart recipients live at least five years, or much longer. Cheney was older than the typical heart transplant recipient; most are between 50 and 64 years old. But he was one of 362 people age 65 and older who received a new heart in 2012, according to the US Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN).
There is a huge need for more heart transplants. Hundreds of thousands of adults suffer from severe heart failure, but many are never included on transplant lists, in part because of organ shortages. Last year, 4,572 people received heart transplants, according to the Organ Network. This number has gradually increased since Cheney's time, with 2,378 transplants performed in 2012. The number of recipients aged 65 and older also increased – 905 last year.
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