University Daily Kansan / Friday, February 20, 1987
Reardon alert after transplant
United Press International
"The heart was a perfect match for the mayor. He did beautifully throughout the surgery," said Jon Moran, the surgeon who performed the five-hour transplant Wednesday night at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Mayor Jack Reardon spent a quiet first day with a new heart beating in his chest yesterday, and the surgeon who perforated the transplant said he should be well ennured to run for a fourth term this spring.
Despite a history of heart problems, Reardon said before the transplant that he would seek a fourth term for the office he has held since 1975. The primary is March 3, and the mayor's aides have said they will campaign for him in that election.
"He had a quiet first day and an opportunity to visit with his family. He was taken off the breathing machine, and he is fairly alert."
Moran said.
Nine other candidates have filed for the mayor's seat, and several have suggested Reardon would not be physically capable of handling his duties in the city of 160,000, the second largest in Kansas.
Moran said Reardon, 43, probably will be well enough to leave the hospital in three weeks, in time for Kansas City's mayoral general election April 7.
One of Reardon's primary challengers, Joe Steineger, a farmer and school board president, said, "I've never made Jack Reardon's health an issue, and I certainly don't intend to now. I think the prayers of the whole city, including myself, are with him. But, undoubtedly, the question of his health will remain in the back of everyone's mind."
City Councilman Ed Alvey, who is acting mayor in Reardon's absence, said, "Quite frankly, a lot of us have been thinking that maybe he was overdoing it."
Moran said heart transplant patients could lead vigorous lives and often could do more than they were able to do before surgery.
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