Midwesterner Is 3rd to Receive Heart Transplant in San Diego

A 49-year-old farmer from the Midwest on Wednesday became the third person to receive a heart transplant in San Diego, a spokeswoman for Sharp Memorial Hospital said.

Chalon Titsworth, whose family asked the hospital not to identify his hometown, received a new heart in a four-hour operation that ended at about noon, hospital spokeswoman Cindy Cohagen said.

Cohagen said Titsworth, the father of two grown sons, was suffering from total deterioration of the heart muscle. He had come to San Diego for tests, the results of which convinced his doctors he needed a transplant, Cohagen said.

The transplant was done by a team led by Drs. Aidan A. Raney and Douglas Zusman--the team that performed San Diego’s first two transplants in October and November.

Gary Grissom of San Diego, the first transplant patient, has been released from the hospital. The second, George Asuncion of Encinitas, is expected to be released shortly, Cohagen said.