San Diego

Gary Grissom, who on Friday became the first person to receive a heart transplant in San Diego County, continued Sunday to make progress in his recovery, a spokesman for Sharp Memorial Hospital said.

Spokesman Ed Crawford said Grissom, a 48-year-old construction contractor, was removed from a respirator late Saturday. On Sunday, Grissom consumed some liquids and sat up in bed with his legs hanging over the edge, Crawford said.

“All of these things are good progress for so recent surgery,” Crawford said. He said Grissom, who is retired and has lived in San Diego for most of his life, would remain in critical condition in the intensive-care unit for several days.

Several other heart patients have received approval and will undergo transplant operations as soon as compatible donors are found, Crawford said. He said he could not confirm a report that two patients have been equipped with paging devices in anticipation of finding donors.

Grissom’s four-hour transplant operation Friday night was the first one done by a team of cardiac surgeons trained at Stanford University and assembled in San Diego over the past two years. The team hopes to perform 15 more transplants over the next year.

In the past, most heart transplants have been done at Stanford University in Palo Alto or at East Coast hospitals. Drs. Aidan Raney and Douglas Zusman, who performed Grissom’s surgery, have performed 50 transplants between them, hospital officials said.

Crawford said Sunday that the doctors would be available for questioning by the media early this week. “I think they want to have a little more time to assess his progress before meeting the press,” he said.

Grissom is expected to remain in the hospital for some time, Crawford said. He said the coming weeks will be critical in determining whether Grissom’s body accepts or rejects the transplanted heart.