15-year-old gets heart, surgery successful

Anthony Stokes, the 15-year-old DeKalb resident whose family feared he would die if he didn’t get a new heart, is in recovery today after getting a new heart.

Mark Bell, a spokesman for the family, confirmed today that Stokes was in surgery for five hours Tuesday evening.

Just last week, Stokes was in the middle of a national debate after the hospital rejected him as a candidate for a transplant because he had a “history of noncompliance.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported on the case on Aug. 12, and the hospital reversed course on Aug. 13, not only placing Stokes on the list to get a transplant, but also making his case a priority.

Stokes suffered from dilated cardiomyopathy, in which the heart’s main pumping chamber, the left ventricle, fails to pump enough blood.

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