New Heart

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's heart transplant Saturday at Inova Fairfox Hospital in Virgina highlights the fact that, while such operations may offer patients a new lease on life, they come with their own set of complications. "It's a long haul," said Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist who serves as director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute. "The first few days is basically like healing from an open-heart operation … so mainly he would have a lot of discomfort in his chest wall.

It is Saturday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, there are basketballs bouncing all around me, sneakers squeaking and fans cheering. UCLA is playing San Diego State in the Wooden Classic, and I don't care. Being a basketball court, this is Rick Majerus' living room and he won't ever sit in it again. He is gone, dead at age 64. The man with the huge heart and similar body shape, the man who knew more about basketball than 99.6% of the human race and coached it every day of his adult life as if it were the Gospel, left us Saturday afternoon.

Patients with osteoarthritis are vulnerable to hip and knee pain due to the wearing away of the joint's cartilage lining. One solution is to surgically replace the faulty joints. A total of 1.8 million total hip replacement and total knee replacement surgeries are performed worldwide each year. The surgeries are straightforward and patients are often released from the hospital within three days. But a new study finds that patients who have their hips and knees replaced have a dramatically increased risk of suffering a heart attack in the first weeks after their surgeries.

Patients with osteoarthritis are vulnerable to hip and knee pain due to the wearing away of the joint's cartilage lining. One solution is to surgically replace the faulty joints. A total of 1.8 million total hip replacement and total knee replacement surgeries are performed worldwide each year. The surgeries are straightforward and patients are often released from the hospital within three days. But a new study finds that patients who have their hips and knees replaced have a dramatically increased risk of suffering a heart attack in the first weeks after their surgeries.

Dick Cheney has been adjusting well to his new heart, talking and standing less than two days after receiving it Saturday. The former vice president "is doing very well" and his doctors are "very pleased" with his recovery from the transplant surgery, according to his aide, Kara Ahern. The 71-year-old Cheney received his new heart at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., after a lifetime of heart disease, including five heart attacks. He joined the waiting list for a transplant in 2010.

A 15-month-old California boy, identified only as "Baby James," underwent a successful human heart transplant Saturday afternoon at Loma Linda University Medical Center, hospital officials announced. Baby James had suffered from cardiomyopathy, a general deterioration of the heart muscle, and during the past few months had endured both pneumonia and congestive heart failure.

Loma Linda University Medical Center's doctors changed their minds late Thursday and decided to put "Baby Jesse" on the waiting list for a heart transplant because his paternal grandparents agreed to assume custody of the 12-day-old boy. "The process of searching for a donor heart has begun," the hospital said in a brief statement.

Baby Eve, the latest infant to receive a heart transplant at Loma Linda University Medical Center, has been "making good progress," hospital officials announced Tuesday in the first condition report on the child. The 22-day-old girl was born with a congenitally malformed heart and last week received the heart of another infant who had been declared brain dead, hospital officials said. "She is round and pink and really quite a lovely, healthy-looking baby," Dr.

MIAMI -- Dressed in a faded orange shirt, blue sweat pants and sneakers, 28-year-old Erik Compton looks like just another pro golfer hoping to get back on the PGA Tour. He launches ball after ball on the driving range, sending them more than 250 yards, though not his usual 300 yards, through the humid air toward Miami International Airport across the street. Finally his workout ends and Compton changes his shirt, revealing the scar. It runs down his chest and hints at what sets the golfer apart: Barely five months ago, he was on an operating table for the second time in his life without a heart.

The infant who received a human heart in rare transplant surgery last week has "progressed well," officials at Loma Linda University Medical Center announced Tuesday. Relaxing but not lifting a tight lid of secrecy surrounding last Wednesday's surgery, the medical center said the child was taken off a respirator Friday night and began bottle feedings on Sunday. The medical center's brief press release, issued "at the parents' request," identified the infant as "Baby Moses."

The Wizard gave Dick Cheney a new heart in March. If only he'd gotten courage as part of the deal. On Friday, Cheney's daughter, Mary, married her longtime partner , Heather Poe. The couple have two children. And how did the staunchly conservative Lynne and Dick Cheney, bastions of the Republican right, react? "Mary and Heather have been in a committed relationship for many years, and we are delighted that they were able to take advantage of the opportunity to have that relationship recognized," the Cheney family said in a statement.

Dick Cheney has been adjusting well to his new heart, talking and standing less than two days after receiving it Saturday. The former vice president "is doing very well" and his doctors are "very pleased" with his recovery from the transplant surgery, according to his aide, Kara Ahern. The 71-year-old Cheney received his new heart at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., after a lifetime of heart disease, including five heart attacks. He joined the waiting list for a transplant in 2010.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's heart transplant Saturday at Inova Fairfox Hospital in Virgina highlights the fact that, while such operations may offer patients a new lease on life, they come with their own set of complications. "It's a long haul," said Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist who serves as director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute. "The first few days is basically like healing from an open-heart operation … so mainly he would have a lot of discomfort in his chest wall.

A man with two hearts--one his own, one a donor heart--was resuscitated via a defibrillator when both organs developed irregular heart rhythms, a case study reports. The study, published online recently in the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine , chronicles the life-saving measures used in 2010 to save the 71-year-old, who received the donor heart in 2003. He had also received a pacemaker in 2001. The heart was implanted in a heterotopic procedure, which means the patient keeps his heart and receives a donor heart.

When 46-year-old Tammy Lumpkins showed up at Keck Hospital of USC in August, she needed a new heart. Her doctors got her onto the transplant list, but as she waited, her health deteriorated. Her liver and kidneys started to fail and she couldn't get out of bed. "To say she was on the brink of death was an understatement," said Dr. Michael Bowdish, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Keck Hospital. PHOTOS: A new heart So in late September, Bowdish implanted an artificial heart in Lumpkins to replace both of the organ's chambers and all four valves.

Deteriorating or clogged heart valves in seriously ill elderly people can be successfully replaced through minimally invasive surgery, researchers said Sunday. The new procedure represents a development whose significance many cardiologists are comparing to balloon angioplasty to clear blocked arteries. At least 100,000 Americans a year develop aortic valve stenosis, which dramatically impairs the ability of the heart to pump blood. A previous study had shown that the valves can be replaced with prosthetic valves through a catheter inserted through a vein in the groin in patients who are too sick for conventional surgery.

When doctors at Loma Linda University Medical Center implanted a new heart in the chest of newborn Baby Paul Holc last month, the operation was considered historic. Only hours after his birth by Caesarean section, Baby Paul became the youngest-ever heart transplant recipient--and is now listed in good condition. In the medical community, however, his age has attracted less attention than the source of the new heart.

Baby Jesse, his new heart beating steadily and all his vital signs good, slept through most of Wednesday while doctors here issued a cautiously optimistic prognosis for the 17-day-old boy, recipient of their fifth infant-to-infant heart transplant in little more than six months.

Awareness of women's heart health has improved over the last 30 years, but cardiovascular disease still causes a woman to die every minute, reports an article in the journal Circulation   detailing the American Heart Assn.'s new cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines for women.   Many of the guidelines, which were released on Tuesday, are familiar.  To minimize risk, women should avoid smoking; should exercise regularly; should eat a diet packed with fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish; should keep to a healthy body weight and should treat their heart disease once they know they have it. Doctors are also urged to screen patients for depression, because people who are receiving treatment for depression are more likely to follow medical advice than those who aren't.

In an interview Tuesday, former Vice President Dick Cheney said he would consider seeking a heart transplant and maintained that President Obama would be voted out of office next year. Cheney, 69, has suffered from heart trouble for most of his life. His most recent of his five heart attacks was in February 2010. Last summer, he had a heart pump implanted in his chest to keep blood flowing to his vital organs. In an interview with NBC's "Today" show, Cheney, who is noticeably thinner than during his vice presidency, said the pump was a temporary measure and that a decision on seeking a new heart hasn't been made.