Local News in Brief : UCLA Transplants Heart and Lungs

Surgeons at the UCLA Medical Center have performed the first heart-lung transplant operation in Southern California. The recipient, Monica Fisogni, 26, of Baldwin Park, was reported in serious but stable condition Monday, according to Joel Don, a UCLA spokesman.

Dr. Hillel Laks, the medical center’s director of heart and heart-lung transplants, said the six-hour operation, performed Saturday, “was particularly smooth.”

Fisogni suffered from a rare heart and lung disease. Other than a transplant, there is no cure for her condition, pulmonary hypertension. Without the operation, Fisogni had not been expected to live longer than a few months, Laks said.

The donor was a 20-year-old man from the Los Angeles area.

Seven surgeons, including Laks, participated in the operation at the Westwood hospital.