Medicine: Louis Block

For one of the three men who fought for life last week with transplanted hearts, the battle was brief.

Louis Block, 58, a retired fireman, had suffered a succession of heart attacks while he ran a radio-TV business in The Bronx. His heart grew bigger but weaker, causing a corresponding lung deterioration. Block was referred to Brooklyn's Maimonides Medical Center, where Surgeon Adrian Kantrowitz had already attempted the transplant of a baby's heart (TIME, Dec. 15).

The Kantrowitz team was prepared for delay in finding a donor with Block's blood type, AB, Rh positive. This is found in only about 5% of Americans....

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