CHICAGO — Doctors say it is unlikely that former Vice President Dick Cheney got special treatment when he was given a new heart that thousands of younger people also were in line to receive.

After spending nearly two years on a waiting list, Cheney received a transplant Saturday. The 71-year-old underwent surgery at the same Virginia hospital where doctors implanted a small heart pump that has kept him alive the past few years.

Cheney was recovering Sunday at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va. He had severe congestive heart failure and had suffered five heart attacks over the past 25 years.

Dr. Allen Taylor, cardiology chief at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, said Sunday that the heart transplant waitlist is “a very regimented and fair process, and heavily policed.”

• Marilynn Marchione, Associated Press