Cheney Spills on Heart Pump

As he makes the rounds to promote his new book, former vice president Dick Cheney has been showing off his heart pump, a remarkable device that has kept him alive a year after end-stage heart failure. “I’m wired now,” Cheney told USA Today. “It’s a great piece of equipment.” The device, called a left ventricular assist device, is strapped into a vest that Cheney wears under his jacket. Its wires go through his chest and pump flood from his left ventricle to his aorta. Though the device is normally meant to assist patients waiting for a new heart, Cheney won’t say whether he’s on a transplant list.