Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has had five heart attacks over more than three decades, now has a new heart … one that was transplanted into him this weekend. The 71-year-old is recuperating in a Virginia hospital.

AP via The Guardian:

Cheney was recovering on Saturday night at the intensive care unit of Inova Fairfax hospital in Virginia after surgery earlier in the day.

The former vice-president suffered a heart attack in 2010, his fifth since the age of 37. That year, he had surgery to have a small pump installed to help his heart keep working. It was one of the few steps left, short of a transplant, to stay alive in the face of what he acknowledged was “increasing congestive heart failure”.

The pump, called a left ventricular assist device, is mainly used for short periods to buy time for potential transplant candidates awaiting a donor organ. The fact that doctors resorted to it illustrated the perilous condition he was in.

Read more

 Rock Solid Journalism

In 2026, amid chaos and the nonstop flurry of headlines, Truthdig remains independent, fact-based and focused on exposing what power tries to hide.

Support Independent Journalism.

SUPPORT TRUTHDIG