Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 15, 1993 TAG: 9306150204
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PITTSBURGH LENGTH: Medium
"The procedure was essentially flawless. The organs were working excellently. We could not have hoped for anything better," said Dr. John Armitage, who handled the heart transplant at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
The heart and liver from a 34-year-old man were of exceptional quality for transplant, he said.
Casey, 61, has "a road ahead of him that is not predictable," said Dr. John Fung, who transplanted the liver.
The governor was moved to an intensive-care unit and will remain there at least for the next few days, doctors said.
The perilous transplant was the governor's last hope for beating amyloidosis, a genetic liver disease that was destroying his heart and liver.
The heart damage was so severe that Casey could have died from a heart attack at any moment, Armitage said. The electrical charge that regulates the heartbeat was one-third of what it should have been.
Doctors had already determined that Casey needed a liver transplant, but weekend tests showed his heart wasn't strong enough for that operation alone.
Casey, who made headlines last year when he was denied permission to speak against abortion at the Democratic National Convention, agreed Sunday to the double transplant and learned late Sunday that a possible donor had been Casey found, said his spokesman, Vincent Carocci.
A heart-liver transplant has been performed one known time on an amyloidosis patient, a 62-year-old man, at Harefield Hospital near London last year. That patient is doing fine, the hospital said.
Other patients have struggled after heart-liver transplants, a procedure pioneered at the Pittsburgh hospital in 1984 and performed on four other patients there. All but one died within months.
Two other Pennsylvania politicians have suffered from amyloidosis: Pittsburgh Mayor Richard S. Caliguiri and Erie Mayor Louis J. Tullio. They both announced in October 1987 that they had fatal, non-inherited forms of the disease. Caliguiri died in May 1988 at age 56 and Tullio in April 1990 at 73.
Patients with the inherited form that affects Casey can live 10 to 15 years after diagnosis, specialists said. The three Pennsylvania cases aren't linked, doctors say.
by CNB