Man, 75, Going Strong After Heart Transplant

Last December, doctors told Norman C. Franzen, 75, of Villa Park that he had 2 1/2 months to live. But this week, he was exercising at a gym, feeling great and looking forward to many more years.

Franzen said he owes his life to the pioneering “alternative heart program” at UCLA Medical Center. The program makes use of donor hearts that are older as well as those in need of surgical repair--hearts usually rejected for younger transplant recipients.

A year ago, Franzen was extraordinarily healthy in other aspects, but his heart was deteriorating, literally wasting away. Franzen said he now knows his only hope was a transplant.

“But no doctor at the time even mentioned a heart transplant,” Franzen said. “I think it was because, if they thought about a heart transplant, they dismissed it as unlikely or impossible. My age was the factor.”

Donor hearts are extremely limited, and healthy donor hearts usually go to young heart patients with longer life expectancies.

“A person like me is not a candidate for a 28-year-old donor heart,” Franzen said.

But Franzen did qualify for the UCLA Medical Center program, and last July he received the heart of a 63-year-old Northern California man who was killed in a car accident. Doctors had to repair that donor heart by giving it a triple bypass before putting it in Franzen’s chest. The heart, however, functions well, and Franzen said he has been steadily recuperating at home, where he also still operates his real estate brokerage.

UCLA officials say Franzen is a testament to its “alternative heart program,” which began in 1994.

“Norman Franzen is a wonderful man who is literally full of life,” said Ruthie Raduziner-Marek, a spokeswoman for UCLA. The United Network for Organ Sharing, an organization in Richmond, Va., which coordinates body-organ donations and distribution, has said Franzen is among the oldest surviving heart transplant patients in the nation, she said.

Franzen said he has personally researched this matter.

“Actually,” he said, “there are three of us who were 75 when we had heart transplants--one in 1994, one in 1995 and me in 1996.” No older heart transplant patient is on record, according to Raduziner-Marek.

Franzen’s wife, Cherri, 41, a nurse, said the UCLA program gives great hope to older heart patients.

“I wouldn’t have my husband alive now without that program,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity for people to have a second chance.”

Franzen has two grown children by his first wife, who died in 1963. He also has five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. He has many things to live for, he said.

“I’ve got a book to write, and speeches to give,” he said. “I want other people, including doctors, to know about this alternative heart program.”

Though only 5 feet 5 inches tall, Franzen was a varsity basketball and football player at Knox College in Illinois and has remained a lifelong athlete, he said. His current recovery includes workouts at a rehabilitation gym.

“I’m looking forward to doing a lot of things,” he said. “I’m excited about life. The difference between age and youth is enthusiasm.”