Doctors say special treatment unlikely in Cheney transplant

Doctors say it is unlikely that former US vice-president Dick Cheney got special treatment when he was given a new heart that thousands of younger people were also in line to receive.

After spending nearly two years on a waiting list, Mr Cheney, 71, received a transplant on Saturday.

He underwent surgery at the same Virginia hospital where doctors implanted a small heart pump that has kept him alive for the past few years.

Dr Allen Taylor, cardiology chief at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, said yesterday that the heart transplant waiting list is “a very regimented and fair process, and heavily policed”.