@parados,
Quote:Was Cheney too old for heart transplant?
I wondered about that also.
I think it depends on the person's over-all health, both physical and cognitive, in deciding whether someone over 70 is an appropriate candidate for an organ transplant. If the transplant can potentially provide them with another 7 or 8 years of a decent quality of life, which is possible with a heart transplant at that age, I wouldn't arbitrarily turn them down in favor of a much younger candidate. And Cheney is responsible and aware and conscientious enough to be able to maintain the careful diet, and exercise, and medication regime he's going to be required to follow.
One thing that enabled Cheney to survive in condition to merit a heart transplant was the left ventricular assist device, or mechanical pump, he received in 2010, because that maintained an adequate blood supply to his other vital organs. So, improved medical technology has helped to make it more feasible to consider heart transplants in older patients because their general health can be better maintained, and Cheney has had access to excellent medical care for a very long time.
John McCain was the last Republican nominee for President, at the age of 72, and if someone is considered as a serious candidate for the highest office in the land at that age, they should certainly be considered an appropriate candidate for an organ transplant.
I think these things have to be decided on a case by case basis.
Ed Koch, the former mayor of New York City, underwent quadruple cardiac by-pass surgery
plus an aortic heart valve replacement, a few years ago, at the age of 84. While not in the same category as an organ transplant, which involves a limited supply of organs, at the time I wondered about providing such aggressive, and medically costly, treatment to a person of that age. But Ed Koch, who's still active and bouncing around, was apparently a very good candidate for the procedures which were life-extending and improved his quality of life. That might not be true for most people who are 84.
Cheney waited his turn on an organ donor list, so I have no problem with his receiving his heart transplant. Even in a much younger person, such transplants do not always result in complete or uncomplicated success--over one half of heart transplant patients face one episode of rejection in their lives, and there are risks of malignancies from the anti-rejection drugs and of kidney failure from the immuno-suppressive drugs, that must be taken for the rest of the recipient's life, among other complications. And some younger recipients have required a second heart transplant.
What I would like to see is everyone who needs them having access to the sort of exhorbitantly expensive medical treatments that Cheney has had available to him. We need to have affordible medical insurance, with adequate coverage for catastrophic conditions, available to everyone. That concerns me more than arbitrary age limits on organ transplants.
