Heart from living donor

Press, 14 May 1987, Page 10

Heart from living donor

NZPA-AFP Baltimore Surgeons at Johns Hopkins hospital have removed a healthy heart from a cystic fibrosis patient for the first heart transplant operation using a live donor, a hospital spokeswoman said. The donor aged 28, then received a heartlung transplant while his own heart was implanted into another patient. It was also the first time that lungs had been removed from a donor’s body and shipped from one hospital to another for such surgery, a spokeswoman, JoAnn Rogers, said. The two transplant re-

cipients were in critical but stable condition, she said. The operation involved removing the heart and lungs of a 32-year-old accident victim, who died in hospital on Monday, and transporting them across town to Johns Hopkins hospital, where the cystic fibrosis patient had been waiting for weeks for a new heart and lungs. Cystic fibrosis is the most common inherited disease in the United States, affecting about 30,000 people. Victims produce a thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and digestive system.