Gov. Casey Has Heart-Liver Transplant

Doctors performed a high-risk heart-liver transplant Monday on Gov. Robert P. Casey in hopes of curing a fatal disease. They said the heart pumped properly and the liver worked well after the 13-hour operation.

“The procedure was essentially flawless. The organs were working excellently. We could not have hoped for anything better,” said Dr. John Armitage, who handled the heart transplant at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

The heart and liver from a 34-year-old man were of exceptional quality, he said.

Casey has “a road ahead of him that is not predictable,” said Dr. John Fung, who handled the liver transplant.

Casey was moved to an intensive care unit where he will remain at least for the next few days, doctors said.

The transplant was the 61-year-old governor’s last hope for beating amyloidosis, a genetic liver disease that was destroying his heart and liver.

The damage that the disease wreaked on Casey’s heart was so severe that he could have died from a heart attack at any moment, said Armitage. The electrical charge that regulates the heartbeat was one-third of what it should have been and could have caused a sudden irregular heartbeat or heart failure.

Doctors had already determined that Casey needed a liver transplant, but weekend tests showed his heart was not strong enough for that operation alone.

A heart-liver transplant has been performed one known time on an amyloidosis patient, a 62-year-old man, at Harefield Hospital near London last year. So far, the patient is doing fine, the hospital said.

Casey, a Democrat in his second term, signed over his gubernatorial powers Monday to Lt. Gov. Mark Singel, a likely Democratic candidate for governor next year. Singel pledged not to use Casey’s absence to push through his own agenda.