From CNN:
Former Vice President Dick Cheney recently underwent heart surgery and is recovering in a Virginia hospital, said a statement issued by Cheney on Wednesday.
During the operation last week at the Inova Fairfax Heart and Vascular Institute, doctors implanted a small pump that “improves heart function and will enable me to resume an active life,” Cheney’s statement said.
“The operation went very well and I am now recuperating,” the statement said.
Dr. Tim Gardner, former president of the American Heart Association, told CNN that such implants indicate severe heart failure.
“These devices are put in patients whose heart failure is so bad that they need a mechanical pump to keep their circulation going,” said Gardner, who is the medical director of the Center for Heart and Vascular Health at Christiana Care in Wilmington, Delaware.
