Former VP Dick Cheney Receives Heart Transplant

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney is recovering at a suburban Washington hospital after having a heart transplant.

That's according to his office. It released a statement Saturday disclosing the surgery, and saying the 71-year-old Cheney has been on the transplant list for more than 20 months.

Aide Kara Ahern says the former vice president is recovering in the Intensive Care Unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., after undergoing the surgery. She says the former vice president does not know the heart donor's identity.

Cheney suffered a heart attack in 2010, his fifth since the age of 37. He had bypass surgery in 1988, as well as two subsequent angioplasties to clear narrowed coronary arteries.

In 2001, he had a special pacemaker implanted in his chest.