By Tiffany Thompson, Staff Writer
Thursday, July 31, 2008 — After more than a month of hospitalization, Frank J. Barbee, an Albemarle native, received a heart transplant Sunday.
“The doctors are more than pleased with how the transplant went. They say I should be the poster child for heart transplants,” Barbee said.
He is expected to remain hospitalized for about seven weeks for recovery and rehabilitation.
Barbee was admitted to Duke University Medical Center on June 23 for congestive heart disease, which he had been living with since 1997.
He was told in December 2007 that he had a 50 percent chance of being alive in six months, so he was placed on the heart transplant list.
Barbee said the surgery went well and his recovery is going well. He is just waiting to be able to come home.
Contact Tiffany Thompson at (704) 982-2121 ext. 24 or snaponline24@carolina.rr.com.
