To the Editor:—
The Baltimore News on Dec 2, 1968, announced that one year after the first cardiac transplant, 95 transplants had been performed, 43 patients were living and 52 had died. The next week the News announced "a milestone in medicine, the 100th cardiac transplant has been performed." Soon, we hope that the news will announce that one patient has lived for one year following cardiac transplant.Alas, that one patient, although he offers hope for the future, is the great exception, for the late mortality following cardiac transplant has been extremely high. Indeed, far higher than indicated by the 54% given in the above figures. As of Dec 6,I have been advised by the American Heart Association that there were 41 patients who had survived surgery more than a month, and of these 41 only 28 survived more than two months, and 17 for longer than three months,