CHENEY GETS A HEART
TRANSPLANT FOR FORMER VP
DICK HAS a new heart.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney was recovering at a Virginia hospital Saturday night after a heart transplant, a spokeswoman said.
The 71-year-old Cheney, who has suffered five heart attacks since his late 30s, had been waiting for a transplant for more than 20 months.
“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 a statement from spokeswoman Kara Ahern.
Cheney was healing at the Intensive Care Unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., after receiving the transplant earlier in the day.
The ex-veep “is thankful to the teams of doctors and other medical professionals at Inova Fairfax and George Washington University Hospital for their continued outstanding care,” Ahern said.
In recent years, Cheney has appeared ared shockingly gaunt, sparking concern among mong his close friends.
“He’s damn near terminal, man,” one friend said last year.
A spokesman for President George e W. Bush, who Cheney worked under from rom 2001 to 2009, said the ex-prez has been n in touch with the Cheney family.
“He and Mrs. Bush were thrilled that hat the surgery went well, and they are keepeping VP Cheney in their prayers for a full ull and speedy recovery,” said spokesman an Freddy Ford.
Cheney received a pacemaker in 1988 8 and a battery-powered heart pump in n 2010. That year, Cheney acknowledged d that he “was entering a new phase of the e disease” with “increasing congestive heart failure.”
As his health declined, Cheney became obsessed with his privacy. That will likely only get worse. “I have zero details,” a close Cheney confidante told the Daily News. “Total blackout.” With News Wire Services