Local News in Brief : Countywide : Transplant Recipients on Way to Recovery
The two men who earlier this month underwent the first heart transplants in Orange County are well on their way to recovery, hospital spokeswomen said Tuesday.
Dr. Norton Humphreys, who on April 20 received the heart of a Costa Mesa man, was listed in fair to good condition at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, spokeswoman Pam Bolen said.
Humphreys is the second man to undergo a heart transplant in the county. The 58-year-old retired family practitioner from Fountain Valley received the heart of 19-year-old Eleno Ullua Ramirez in a five-hour operation. Police are treating the death of Ullua, who suffered a skull fracture, as a homicide.
Scott Headding, who received the first heart to be transplanted in Orange County on April 8 at UCI Medical Center in Orange, is in good condition, hospital spokeswoman Elaine Beno said.
Tuesday, the 26-year-old Huntington Beach musician started exercising on a stationary bicycle. Monday, he was moved out of intensive care and into the hospital’s cardiac care unit, Beno said.
Headding is tentatively scheduled to be released from UCI Medical Center at the end of the week, she said.
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