NORTH LIBERTY, IOWA (AP) -- His family says a North Liberty man who was Iowa's first heart transplant recipient has died - nearly 25 years after he received the heart of a motorcycle accident victim.
Emerson Martin was 25 years old and living in Webster City when he experienced severe heart problems at an Iowa State football game in 1984. Doctors told him he would soon need a transplant.
The transplant was performed in June of 1985 at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Doctors told Martin then that he had a 50 percent chance of surviving one year.
He beat that by nearly 24 years, raising three daughters and managing a McDonald's restaurant.
Martin's wife, Traci, says her husband, who survived kidney cancer in the 1990s, died Wednesday night when his heart suddenly stopped beating.
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