San Diego
The man who received the first heart transplant ever done in San Diego County is scheduled to leave Sharp Memorial Hospital for home today, a hospital spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Gary Grissom, 48, a retired construction contractor who underwent the historic operation Oct. 11, is to leave the Kearny Mesa hospital after a 1 p.m. news conference, according to hospital spokeswoman Cindy Cohagen.
Doctors pronounced Grissom’s transplant a success shortly after he emerged from the four-hour procedure and have reported no setbacks since. However, they said patients run the greatest risk of rejecting a new heart during the first 10 weeks after the operation.
A second man, George Asuncion of Carlsbad, received a transplant at Sharp on Monday. The hospital hopes to perform 12 to 20 heart transplants a year.
Doctors say 92% of all heart transplant patients now survive to be discharged from the hospital. Approximately 85% survive for a year, 75% for two years, and 65% for five years. One heart recipient has survived for 15 1/2 years.
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