Congratulations, Cheney Family… Dick Cheney Receives a New Heart

By: Andrea Ryan

Congratulations to the Cheney family.  One of the stars of the Conservative movement has been rewarded by the technologies of modern medicine.  For the past two years, Vice President Dick Cheney has been using a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) as a bridge to a heart transplant, since his own heart was too sick to go on after five heart attacks.  Dick Cheney waited like everyone else did for the miracle organ transplant and utilized one of the miracles of modern medicine, the LVAD, to get him there.

According to the Washington Post,

Former vice president Dick Cheney, who has suffered five heart attacks since his late 30s, underwent a heart transplant Saturday after more than 20 months on a transplant list, according to his office.

“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,” Cheney aide Kara Ahern said in a statement issued Saturday night. Ahern said Cheney “is thankful to the teams of doctors and other medical professionals at Inova Fairfax and George Washington University Hospital for their continued outstanding care.”

Cheney, 71, was recovering Saturday in the intensive care unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in the Falls Church area, Ahern said.

Cheney, who served as vice president under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009, suffered his first heart attack when he was 37. In 1988, Cheney underwent quadruple-bypass surgery. He also had two artery-clearing angioplasties and had a heart-monitoring device implanted. The device was removed in 2007.

In 2005, Cheney had six hours of surgery on his legs to repair a type of aneurysm, and in March 2007, doctors discovered deep venous thrombosis, or blood clot, in his left lower leg. An ultrasound a month later showed the clot was getting smaller.

In July 2010, Cheney announced that a small left ventricular assist device (LVAD) had been implanted to help treat congestive heart failure. The device, which included an external system controller, required two rechargeable batteries to help pump blood throughout the body. A few months laterCheney appeared noticeably thinner at the groundbreaking for the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Texas.

“The [heart pump] technology was originally developed to provide a transition,”Cheney told NBC News in an interview in August, “to take somebody who’s reached the point where they needed a transplant, but a transplant wouldn’t immediately be available, so they put this in as a temporary measure.”

The Left in this country has wished Dick Cheney unending ill will and misfortune.

Two years ago, Ed Schultz suggested Dick Cheney should be the poster child for what’s wrong with our health care in this country.  No, Ed.  Dick Cheney is the poster child for what’s right.  But, you can rest assured none of this would have happened under Obamacare.  There would have been no money for LVADs, no money for transplants, and the all-knowing IPAB would have forbidden this due to costs.  And you can bet Mr. Obama would have had something to say to his IPAB about Dick Cheney’s heart transplant.

A transplant is no guarantee, but hopefully this will lead to many more years of a good life for Dick Cheney.

Hat tip: Gini

 

Thanks for sharing!