Anaheim Man Receives County’s 3rd Heart Transplant

A 45-year-old Anaheim man on Tuesday received the heart of a 21-year-old man killed during a Memorial Day weekend traffic accident, becoming Orange County’s third heart transplant recipient and the second patient to receive such surgery at UCI Medical Center.

Gene Reynolds, a 25-year employee of Pacific Bell, received the heart during a 3 1/2-hour early morning operation performed by a transplant team headed by cardiac surgeon Richard Ott. Reynolds was listed in critical but stable condition late Tuesday.

Reynolds responded well to the operation and appeared to have no complications, Ott said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s taken very well. We are thrilled that he’s awake and stable. He is already set to get off the respirator.”

The donor was a student from Carlsbad who was killed Sunday in an accident in San Bernardino County, said Elaine Beno, spokeswoman for the medical center in Orange. She said the donor’s family had requested that no further information be released.

Beno added that it was the family’s decision to donate the man’s vital organs. A spokeswoman for the Regional Organ Procurement Agency in Los Angeles confirmed that the heart for Reynolds had been obtained through the organization, adding that the family wished to remain anonymous.

Ott said Reynolds developed a condition known as cardiomyopathy, or a weakening of the heart muscles, two years ago. His condition had gradually deteriorated, forcing him to be hospitalized several times. Reynolds, who lives in Anaheim with his 21-year-old daughter, Wendy, was admitted to UCI Medical Center on May 13, when his condition worsened.

“He looked substantially worse over the weekend. My fear was that he might die. We really were running out of time with him,” Ott said.

The heart surgeon, however, said that the operation, which concluded at 8 a.m., had gone “perfectly. We learned from the first one and this one was much better.”

Ott performed the county’s first heart transplant on April 8, when the heart of a 30-year-old Marine staff sergeant killed in a fight outside a Fullerton bar was implanted into Scott Headding, a 26-year-old musician from Huntington Beach.

The second heart transplant in the county was performed at HoagMemorial Hospital Presbyterian on April 20, when Dr. Norton Humphreys, a 58-year-old retired physician from Fountain Valley, received the heart of a 19-year-old Costa Mesa man.

Reynolds’ daughter, two brothers and mother, Junice Reynolds of Santa Ana, were at the hospital during the operation.

Paul Reynolds, 42, said that his brother was in good spirits Tuesday afternoon, eight hours after the surgery was completed, and that the family was relieved after being at the hospital since before 4:30 a.m. when the operation began.

“We were really caught off guard a little bit. We knew it would come at any time and were anticipating it. But it still moved so quickly,” the brother said.