Longest Living American With Single Heart Transplant Dead at 51

DAYTON, Ohio – An Ohio man who lived the longest on one transplanted heart has died at age 51.

In 2000, Tony Huesman became the American who lived the longest on one heart transplant. That year, a Tennessee man who got his first new heart a year before Huesman got his underwent a second transplant.

Huesman’s wife, Carol Huesman, says he died Sunday night after a battle with cancer. He was attacked by a pneumonia virus when he was 18. He got a heart transplant 31 years ago at Stanford University.

He later founded the Huesman Heart Foundation in Dayton and served as its president. The foundation seeks to reduce heart disease by educating children.