Cheney may not opt for heart transplant. “The patient is going to look like a walking zombie”

I know, I know, what heart… but let’s get past that for now. It’s getting old, as is Dick Cheney:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, battling a lifetime of cardiac disease, has not decided whether to seek a heart transplant but could use a device surgically inserted into his chest last week as permanent therapy for his condition, according to a source close to the Cheney family and to heart surgeons familiar with the treatment.

“He has not made any decision yet about a transplant,” the source said Thursday. “He is totally focused right now on recuperation and rehab” with his current device.

As MSNBC noted:

The next step would be a transplant… and nobody gets bumped to the front of the line, says the MSNBC reporter. So the device is critical.

This is a longer term alternative for keeping patients alive.

And as was pointed out on the Rachel Maddow Show, Cheney no longer has a pulse:

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There are other factor involved in his decision:

Cheney may not be a good candidate for a heart transplant, primarily because of his age. The scarcity of available hearts means that surgeons typically prefer to reserve them for younger patients with longer expected life spans.

Here’s a strange, rather creepy little tidbit: People who use the device “must carry medical documentation saying that the lack of a pulse does not mean they are dead.”

Yes, jokes abound, and I am trying my level best to be sensitive to someone going through a very scary, very painful experience… not unlike a person who underwent, say, torture.

Dr. Paul Mazur, a cardiothoracic surgeon at MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute in Fountain Valley, California:

“The patient is going to look like a walking zombie.”

And with that, I’ll stop before I say something I’ll regret.