| News From Transplant Week of June 9, 2002 / Vol. 3 No. 23 |
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"Poster Boy" for Transplantation of Hearts Into Seniors Dies -- 15 Years Later |
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Arthur Schoenberg, 81, has died 15 years after becoming the "poster boy" for the transplantation of hearts into older patients. Schoenberg at age 66 became the oldest person to that point to receive a heart transplant in the United States when he got his heart on Sept. 21, 1986 at the UCLA Medical Center. The recommended cutoff point for heart transplants in the United States at that time was age 55. "He was the poster boy," said Dr. Davis Drinkwater, the surgeon who performed the transplant who is now chairman of the department of cardiac and thoracic surgery at the Vanderbilt University. "He led the whole movement of making alternate donor organs available to older patients." At UCLA today, patients under 65 years of age in need of a heart transplant are placed on the standard waiting list. But those 70 or older are placed on an alternate list for hearts that might not be acceptable for younger patients. A heart donated from someone with coronary disease, for example, might not be acceptable for a young person, but could provide years of life for an older patient. Those aged 65 to 70 are placed on both lists. "By sorting potential recipients by age, transplant centers can save lives among older transplant candidates, use donor hearts that might otherwise be unused in younger patients, and make sure that hearts suitable for younger individuals are not diverted away from them," said Dr. Daniel Marelli, an assistant professor of cardiac surgery at UCLA. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, 542 people age 65 or older are now on waiting lists around the country for donor hearts. Other sources: Los Angeles Times, American Heart Association |
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