Fourth Heart Transplant Performed in County

A 54-year-old Huntington Beach businessman became Orange County’s fourth heart-transplant recipient Tuesday, receiving the heart of a 35-year-old Los Angeles man in a four-hour operation at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.

Neither the donor nor the recipient was identified by name.

Hoag official Gail Love called the operation a success.

The recipient, who had been suffering from advanced heart disease, was listed in critical condition after surgery but was stable and resting comfortably.

The operation, performed by Hoag cardiac surgeons Aidan Rainey and Douglas Zusman, was the second at Hoag and the fourth performed in Orange County this year. Hoag performed its first 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.

The other two heart transplants, including Orange County’s first, on April 8, were performed at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

Love said the latest transplant came after the Los Angeles man, suffering from an intercranial hemorrhage, died early Tuesday.

Rainey, accompanied by three members of the Hoag transplant team, went to an unidentified hospital in the Los Angeles area to obtain the donor’s heart at 3 a.m. They returned to Hoag in Newport Beach by helicopter at 7:25 a.m.

The recipient, who had been wearing a beeper to alert him to the availability of a new heart, reported to Hoag a little after midnight and was prepared for surgery.