Carson awaiting heart transplant
Device installed to keep legislator’s heart going.
The recently completed legislative session was a physically trying one for District 20 Rep. Lance Carson, R-Mitchell.
“I only missed four days,” he said.
He wouldn’t have missed any days, he added, if he hadn’t picked up a postoperative hospital infection that led to “one thing after another.”
In mid-November, Carson, 67, had a left-ventricular assist device (LVAD) implanted at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview. Heart problems through the years left him with a weakened heart. The LVAD will help his heart keep going until a new organ can be found. He is on a transplant list, awaiting a new heart.
The LVAD is “a little inconvenient, but the benefits outweigh the inconveniences,” he said. “I can get around pretty good now.”
He hopes to be back “in the swing of things” by May, hopefully doing volunteer work at the rodeo grounds in Mitchell. He has one year left on his current term and is term-limited, so he can’t run for reelection to the House in 2014. He was first elected in 2006. Any designs on the Senate?
“As of right now, no,” he said. “I need to spend some time doing some other things, I think, but I’m not going to rule it out.”
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