Monday, March 26, 2012

Death panel: doctor questions new heart going to Cheney

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3/25/12, "Cheney recovering after heart transplant," USA Today, Szabo and Wolf

"Shortly after Cheney's surgery was disclosed, one prominent cardiologist — Eric Topol of Scripps Health in La Jolla, Calif. — raised the issue of whether someone so old should have received a new heart. "The ethicists will get into this case," he wrote on Twitter....

Prominent cardiologist Eric Topol, who consulted on Cheney's care during his first run for vice-president, said that people of Cheney's age "don't generally do so well" after a heart transplant.

"I wish him well," says Topol, director of the Scripps Treanslational Science Institute in La Jolla, Calif. But he notes, "It's unusual for people over 65 or 70 to get a transplant."

Topol added, "We have a profound shortage of hearts for transplantation. They are precious. It would be interesting to find out how this all came about. Was the match suitable for other individuals? Will we ever find that out or will that be kept under wraps? It's not that he shouldn't get a transplant; it's a question of 'Who didn't get one?' There are people who are on the transplant list for many years. It would be nice to know how he got to the top (of the list). Did he decompensate and was he in extremis?...

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