On Sunday Carolina Panthers' owner Jerry Richardson, 72, underwent heart transplant surgery at Carolinas Medical Center, according to local sources. He had been on the waiting list for a heart transplant since mid-December, according to reports, after a series of medical procedures failed to solve his heart problems.

 

Charlie Dayton, Panthers communication director, was quoted by the Charlotte Observer Sunday night saying that “the process had begun,” but he wouldn’t elaborate.

Richardson entered the hospital in November after feeling ill. Doctors at Carolina Medical Center discovered an irregular heartbeat and put him on the transplant list. In June he received a pacemaker and seven years ago he underwent coronary bypass surgery.

 

According to local sources, Richardson had the transplant yesterday at Carolinas Medical Center and was doing well. Patients who receive a heart transplant can expect to spend 10 days to two weeks in the hospital.

 

Nearly 40 patients received heart transplants at Carolinas Medical Center from July 1, 2004 to Dec. 31, 2006. Of them, 95 percent survived after one month and 89 percent after one year.

“Because of the scarcity of donor organs we only reserve transplant for the patients who essentially have no other options,” Dr. Ted Frank, medical director of the adult heart transplant program at CMC, told a news conference about the process of being put on a transplant list in December.

 

According to statistics released by the National Institutes of Health, approximately 2,000 heart transplants are performed in the U.S. each year. Heart transplant is considered a treatment option for heart failure caused by conditions such as coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, congenital heart disease or valve disease.