New Heart

In honor of Police Sgt. Daniel Stickney, who will return to full duty in May after receiving a heart transplant, the Haverford Township Commissioners last week proclaimed April 23-29 as Organ Donor Awareness Week. Stickney, 45, who accepted the proclamation and kudos from the board on Wednesday night, distributed information on how to become an organ donor. "I've known him since he was a little boy," said board President Stephen Campetti. "He was a Vietnam vet . . . and also very active in the MIA/POWs.

Police Chief Richard H. Moore Jr. has been admitted to Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia and is awaiting a heart transplant, a hospital spokesman said yesterday. Nursing supervisor Tom Green said Moore, 46, is in fair condition and is being treated in the hospital's heart failure care unit. Green said he did not know how long Moore would have to wait for the heart. Mayor Gerald Luongo said yesterday that Moore went for tests when he began to feel ill earlier this month.

Haverford police Sgt. Dan Stickney probably won't feel the difference for a few more weeks. His body is still weak from surgery, but he says he has at least one way of telling he has a new heart. Before his transplant earlier this month, Stickney's heart had to beat 125 times a minute to keep his blood circulating. Now, Stickney says, his new heart only has to beat about 90 times a minute. "It's a normal heartbeat!" he said in amazement. Stickney, 42, suffered a massive heart attack in April 1986 while attending a police survival course in Montgomery County.

Kenneth "Buddy" Wood Jr., 30, a Deptford Township medical student who had been awaiting a heart transplant since October, died Wednesday at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York hours after receiving a new heart. Mr. Wood received the heart of a 14-year-old Virginia resident early Wednesday morning and was on the operating table from 8:30 a.m. to noon. He died at 4:45 p.m. A freshman cardiology major at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark, Mr. Wood discovered last fall that he had fibrosis of the heart and that a heart transplant would be necessary.

Frank Torre, who underwent a heart transplant in a Frank Capra-esque scenario the day before his brother Joe managed the Yankees to their world championship, walked out of a New York hospital yesterday. "I feel like a new man!" Torre announced, looking strong - though a little thin - in his warmup suit and sneakers as he stood behind a podium in the lobby of Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center for his last news conference before departing. "We got a 28-year-old heart. " "Right now I'm a little scared," he said.

A former DuPont Co. executive was said to be resting comfortably yesterday afternoon after becoming the 20th patient to undergo a heart transplant by a surgical team of Temple University Hospital doctors. Harold Serenbetz, 56, of Hockessin, Delaware, a retired engineering executive and father of five, was listed in critical condition in intensive care after a four-hour operation yesterday morning. "That's a standard classification for this type of operation," said a hospital spokesman.

His new heart works just fine, Leandrew Mickens has determined. And he can still dream, especially when he thinks of his second chance at life. He can smile when he thinks of his two sons, and how they've become closer to him through all of this. "When you're here, you learn a lot of things," Mickens says, staring at the white tile floor this week in Temple University Hospital's heart trauma ward. Those are tears in his eyes. He knows how close he came. "Life is precious," he says, tubes running down his face from his nose, his gown just covering his chest scars.

It was day six with his new heart, and Washington Township Police Chief Richard H. Moore's thoughts had turned to the more robust life he hopes to lead on and off the job. "I'm going to be the same chief, I'm not going to change. All I'm saying is I'm going to be able to do more," Moore said in an interview from his private room at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. Moore, 46, was in stable condition yesterday, nearly a week after surgeons replaced his weakened heart during a five-hour operation that ended at 5 a.m. Saturday.

As the months in the hospital went by - two, then three, then six - what 13-year-old Julia Parmisciano kept hoping for was to be home for Christmas. She told her mother she didn't want any presents. She just wanted to be with her family, like usual. On Saturday, a Christmas tree sparkled in the living room. And there beside it sat a petite girl with long brown hair, eating an egg sandwich. Julia - and her new heart - had made it. She grimaced as she took her last pill of the morning - No. 7, and they're big. But then she looked up with big brown eyes and smiled the smile that one of her doctors said "could light up the universe.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - No female trainer has ever won the Kentucky Derby. No trainer with a replacement heart has ever won the Derby, either. Kathy Ritvo is trying to do both. Three years ago, Ritvo watched the Derby in a critical care unit of a Miami hospital, waiting for a donor. Six months later, after being tethered to machines that kept her heart functioning, Ritvo got her donor, and her new heart took over for the old one that was completely worn out. Ritvo, 41, is at Churchill Downs this week.

IT WAS 1985, Ernie Schiff had just gotten a new heart - his was the fifth such transplant in Philadelphia - and his wife wanted to know what was next. "The coordinator handed me a big book," said Anne Schiff, now 82. "I didn't understand anything about the book. I said, 'You know, I think we should start a group.' And I said, 'Let's call it Second Chance.' Because that's exactly what it was. " Twenty-eight years and nearly 2,500 heart transplants later, Second Chance quietly continues its same dual mission: support for patients who want to know what will happen to them and fundraising to help them afford it. It has expanded from Temple University Hospital, then the local pioneer, to the three other general hospitals in Philly that now do heart transplants - Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann University Hospital.

Cheney released with new heart WASHINGTON - Former Vice President Dick Cheney was released from the hospital Tuesday, 10 days after getting a new heart, his office said. Cheney, 71, received the organ March 24 from an unknown donor at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va. "As he leaves the hospital, the former vice president and his family want to again express their deep gratitude to the donor and the donor's family for this remarkable gift," aide Kara Ahern said in a statement.

CHICAGO - Doctors say it is unlikely that former Vice President Dick Cheney got special treatment when he was given a new heart at age 71. Still, his case reopens debate about whether rules should be changed to favor youth over age in giving out scarce organs. As it stands, time on the waiting list, medical need, and where you live determine the odds of receiving a new heart - not how many years you'll live to make use of it. Cheney had the transplant Saturday at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., where he also received an implanted heart pump that has kept him alive since July 2010.

Question: I had a major heart attack about two years ago. My cardiologist says my heart pumps only half as well as a healthy heart. I'm on a number of heart medications, but can you tell me whether anyone is studying a way to restore a weak heart like mine to the way it was? Answer: A heart attack is the permanent damage and death of heart muscle resulting from a blockage to the blood vessel supplying that area. Once an area of tissue is dead, it forms a permanent scar and is gone for good - or so we've always thought.

As the months in the hospital went by - two, then three, then six - what 13-year-old Julia Parmisciano kept hoping for was to be home for Christmas. She told her mother she didn't want any presents. She just wanted to be with her family, like usual. On Saturday, a Christmas tree sparkled in the living room. And there beside it sat a petite girl with long, brown hair eating an egg sandwich. Julia - and her new heart - had made it. She grimaced as she took her last pill of the morning - No. 7, and they're big. But then she looked up with big, brown eyes and smiled the smile that one of her doctors said "could light up the universe.

As the months in the hospital went by - two, then three, then six - what 13-year-old Julia Parmisciano kept hoping for was to be home for Christmas. She told her mother she didn't want any presents. She just wanted to be with her family, like usual. On Saturday, a Christmas tree sparkled in the living room. And there beside it sat a petite girl with long brown hair, eating an egg sandwich. Julia - and her new heart - had made it. She grimaced as she took her last pill of the morning - No. 7, and they're big. But then she looked up with big brown eyes and smiled the smile that one of her doctors said "could light up the universe.

TWO-TIME heart-transplant recipient Erik Compton earned a PGA Tour card when he finished in the top 25 on the Nationwide Tour money list, while Ken Duke won the season-ended Nationwide Tour Championship yesterday in Charleston, S.C., to also secure a spot on the big tour. Duke closed with a 4-under 68 to finish at 10-under on Daniel Island Club's Ralston Creek Course, two better than Scott Brown. The 42-year-old Duke earned $180,000 and went from 36th to seventh on the money list.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - No female trainer has ever won the Kentucky Derby. No trainer with a replacement heart has ever won the Derby, either. Kathy Ritvo is trying to do both. Three years ago, Ritvo watched the Derby in a critical care unit of a Miami hospital, waiting for a donor. Six months later, after being tethered to machines that kept her heart functioning, Ritvo got her donor, and her new heart took over for the old one that was completely worn out. Ritvo, 41, is at Churchill Downs this week.

John C. Bogle is the author of the newly revised Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life. He is a father of six and grandfather of 12 Graduation season and Father's Day are a fitting time to reflect on the past and contemplate the future; a time to impart lessons learned to future generations. There is a wonderful story - which is, I fear, apocryphal - told of Sir Winston Churchill's doing just that in a return to Harrow School, from which he had graduated in 1893. As the story goes, Churchill was well into his 80s - frail, wizened, and stooped - when he attended the annual opening of school.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. - Erik Compton describes himself as a dreamer, and that is an important trait to have for someone who has endured two heart transplants and still returned to golf, the game he loves. Compton, 30, a former all-American at Georgia, fulfilled a huge dream last week by qualifying for his first U.S. Open. He played his initial full 18-hole practice round Monday at the seaside Pebble Beach Golf Links and said he almost gotten dizzy looking around "just because it's so surreal.