‘Domino’ Heart Patient Home
BALTIMORE — John Couch, one of two men involved in the nation’s first “domino donor” transplant, left Johns Hopkins Hospital today, 18 days after receiving a new heart.
“Now, this is the biggest difference in the world,” Couch said as he left the hospital for home with his wife, Peggy. “I was in really deteriorating health before. Now I am up and around and walking around.” Couch, 38, received a heart May 11 from Clinton House, a cystic fibrosis victim. House, 28, received a heart and lungs from a brain-dead auto accident victim. Doctors transplanted both the heart and lungs to House because lungs-only transplants have generally been less successful.
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