What to know about Dick Cheney’s heart trouble and eventual transplant

Former Vice President Dick Cheney battled heart disease for most of his adult life, a life extended in part by a heart transplant in 2012.

Cheney, who died Monday of complications from pneumonia and heart and vascular disease, had his first heart attack at the unusually young age of 37. He would survive four more before his heart failed enough to qualify for this transplant.

Heart disease is the nation’s leading cause of death, and Cheney’s decades of health problems illustrate how heart problems can add up — as well as the various treatments.

Over the years, Cheney has undergone quadruple bypass surgery to redirect blood flow around blocked heart arteries, as well as less invasive angioplasties to clear the arteries. He had a pacemaker implanted to monitor his heart rate. He also had blood vessel problems in his legs.

Heart attacks damage the heart muscle, ultimately making it more difficult to pump properly. After Cheney’s fifth heart attack in 2010, he acknowledged “increasing congestive heart failure.” He received another implant, a small pump called a left ventricular assist device, or LVAD. This device took over the work of his heart’s main pumping chamber, powered by batteries carried in a fanny pack.

Then in March 2012, at the age of 71, Cheney received a heart transplant. Like him, more than 70% of heart transplant recipients live at least five years, or even much more. Cheney was older than a typical heart transplant recipient; most are between 50 and 64 years old. But he was among 362 people aged 65 or older who received a new heart in 2012, according to the American Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, or OPTN.

There is a huge need for transplantable hearts. Hundreds of thousands of adults suffer from advanced heart failure, but many never make it onto the transplant list, in part because of organ shortages. According to the organ network, 4,572 people received heart transplants last year. This number has increased gradually since Cheney: there were 2,378 transplants in 2012. The same was true for the number of recipients 65 or older: 905 last year.

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