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The Austrian motor racing legend, 69, underwent
the surgery in Vienna on Thursday.
His condition at the time had been "extremely critical", the
head of the department that performed Lauda's surgery said.
"In the last seven days, Mr. Lauda was kept alive only by a
pump, a sort of heart-lung machine," head of the Department of
Thoracic Surgery Walter Klepetko said in a television interview
released by Austria's Oe24 on Friday.
Without a transplant, life expectancy in such circumstances
would be limited to days or weeks, he said.
"Considering the not very easy circumstances we are very, very
happy with the developments," Klepetko said, adding the hospital
would release a comprehensive update about Lauda's condition at
a later time.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff on Friday wished chairman Lauda a
safe and speedy recovery and hoped the Austrian would be back at
the races before long.
"The world knows Niki as an F1 legend with incredible power and
resilience," Wolff, also Austrian, said in a message before the
August factory shutdown.
"For all of us at Mercedes he is our chairman, our mentor and
our friend," he added. "We have missed him by our side in
Hockenheim and Hungary and can't wait to have him back with us
on the grand prix tracks of this world."
"The recovery he now faces is not a race. But knowing Niki, I'm
sure he will soon be telling every nurse and doctor that he has
had enough of the hospital," Wolff said.
Four times world champion Lewis Hamilton, who is leading the
championship for Mercedes, also sent Lauda - who was
instrumental in signing the Briton from McLaren at the end of
2012 - a message on Instagram.
Lauda, who was badly burned in a near-fatal Formula One crash in
1976 and later became an airline entrepreneur, was taken ill
recently. He won his titles with Ferrari and McLaren in 1975,
1977 and 1984.
He recently agreed to sell control of his Laudamotion airline to
Ryanair.
(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and Alan Baldwin; Editing
by Ken Ferris and Andrew Bolton)
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