"Doctors transplanted a pig's heart into a patient in Maryland, a historic first that could have wide-ranging implications for organ transplant surgery.
The experimental heart transplant showed for the first time that a genetically modified animal heart can replace a human heart without immediate rejection by the body, doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center said.
The operation was granted emergency authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on New Year's Eve. David Bennett, a 57-year-old with terminal heart disease, went into surgery last week and is doing well three days later, the University of Maryland Medical Center said Monday.
"It was either die or do this transplant," Mr. Bennett said a day before the surgery, according to the University of Maryland Medicine. "I know it's a shot in the dark, but it's my last choice."
The Maryland resident, who was ineligible for a conventional heart transplant, will be monitored over coming days and weeks to see if the transplant will continue to work.
"This was a breakthrough surgery and brings us one step closer to solving the organ shortage crisis," said Dr. Bartley Griffith, who surgically transplanted the pig heart into Mr. Bennett.
More than 106,000 adults and children are waiting on an organ transplant, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.
Researchers have successfully make animal-to-human transplants, known as xenotransplantation. But they have faced various complications. In the 1980s, an infant born with a fatal heart condition died within a month of a procedure that replaced her heart with that of a baboon." [1]
1. U.S. News: Doctors Transplant Pig Heart Into Man
Ansari, Talal. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 11 Jan 2022: A.3.
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