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Dick Cheney Gets Heart Transplant

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Dick Cheney is doing well in Falls Church, Va. following heart transplant surgery on Saturday, a statement (via ABC News) from the former Vice President's office confirmed.

Cheney, 70, has suffered five heart attacks stretching back to 1978, and he had been on the cardiac transplant list for 20 months.

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Read the statement from Cheney's office: "Although the former Vice President and his family do not know the identity of the donor, they will be forever grateful for this lifesaving gift."

Cheney and wife Lynne have two daughters, Elizabeth and Mary, and six grandchildren. "Former Vice President Cheney is thankful to the teams of doctors and other medical professionals at Inova Fairfax and George Washington University Hospital for their continued outstanding care," the statement continued.

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Former President George W. Bush's right-hand man suffered his fourth heart attack in November 2000, shortly after the contested election. He had a pacemaker put in his chest in 2001, and underwent elective back surgery in 2009. His fifth heart attack occurred in February 2010; his old boss George W. Bush visited the convalescing Cheney at his home in McLean, Va. in what was their first in-person meeting since Bush left the White House in January 2009.

Cheney's last major heart surgery was in July 2010, in which a heart pump called called a Left Ventricular Assist Device was implanted.

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