New-heart Recipient Dies At U Hospital

A Portage man who underwent heart transplant surgery last night at University Hospital died at 4:30 a.m. today, eight hours after the operation began. But two recipients of kidneys from the same donor in the U-M hospital's first simultaneous three-way transplant were reported in "good condition" today. Lyman E. Abbott, 54, a age school supplies salesman, received the heart of E. Oliver Hansen, 43-year-old Jackson architect, in an operation that began at 8:20 p.m. yesterday. Mr. Abbott's kidneys were received by Mrs. Raymond C. (Mary) Medrano, 21, of Croswell, and John Cottingham, 26, of Kalamazoo. Dr. Donald R. Kahn, U-M associate professor of surgery and head of the heart transplant team, said this morning that the recipient's new heart "could not function well." It was Michigan's fifth heart transplant, involving four recipients. Only Donald L. Kaminski, 39, of Alpena, who received a new heart on Dec. 2, 1968, at University Hospital remains alive and well. Gerald K. Rector, 44, of near Kalamazoo, Michigan's third heart transplant, who received a new heart on March 17, 1969, died Jan. 27, following a second transplant. Philip T. Barnum, 50, of Kalamazoo, died last Dec. 10, of pneumonía 15 mpnths after receiving a new heart at University Hospital. Dr. Jeremiah G. Turcotte, U-M associate professor of surgery Bnd head of the kidney transplant team, said today that "the kidneys are functioning fine" in both recipients and that both are in "good condition." Some 25 doctors were present throughout the three simultaneous transplant operations at University Hospital, with four operating rooms in use, includng the one for the donor. Dr. K a h n andhisstaff Iabored eight hours trying to keep the Portage man's new heart working, but in the end lost the battle. Mr. Abbott was married and the father of three children; Duane, 26, of Lansing; Diane, 19, a sophomore at Western Michigan University, and Valerie, 16, a junior at Portage High School. The donor of the heart and kidneys, a father of three teenage children, died at 8:15 p.m. yesterday at University Hospital after being transferred from Foote Hospital in Jackson with a "spontaneous brain hemorrhage" on April 16. The heart recipiënt had been at University Hospital since Dec. 23, suffering from coronary artery disease. He had suffered two heart attacks and was near death at the time of surgery, doctors said. Mrs. Medrano received one of the kidneys following failure of a kidney transplant she has received three months ago. She has been a patiënt at University Hospital since last July. Cottíngham, who is married, had been kept alive on a kidney machine at University Hospital since Jan 5, while waiting for a new kidney. Two of nis brothers who offered to dónate kidney's were turned down because of medical reasons, doctors said. Mr. Abbott's condition was as "as bad as anything we have seen," Dr. Kahn said. The kidney transplants were completed by about 2 a.m. today, according to a hospital spokesman.