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WASHINGTON: Surgeons have transplanted a pig’s heart into a dying man in a bid to prolong his life – only the second patient to ever undergo such an experimental feat. Two days later, the man was cracking jokes and able to sit in a chair, Maryland doctors said on Friday.
The 58-year-old navy veteran was facing near-certain death from heart failure but other health problems meant he wasn’t eligible for a traditional heart transplant, according to doctors at University of Maryland Medicine. While the next few weeks will be critical, doctors were thrilled at Lawrence Faucette‘s early response to the pig organ. “You know, I just keep shaking my head – how am I talking to someone who has a pig heart?” Dr Bartley Griffith, who performed the transplant, said. He said doctors are feeling “a great privilege but, you know, a lot of pressure.” The same Maryland team last year performed the world’s first transplant of a genetically modified pig heart into another dying man, David Bennett, who survived just two months.
Faucette knew about the first case but decided the transplant was his best shot. “Nobody knows from this point forward. At least now I have hope and I have a chance,” he said in a video recorded by the hospital before the operation.
There’s a huge shortage of human organs donated for transplant. Attempts at animal-to-human organ transplants have failed for decades, as people’s immune systems immediately destroyed the foreign tissue. Now scientists are trying again using pigs genetically modified to make their organs more humanlike.
The 58-year-old navy veteran was facing near-certain death from heart failure but other health problems meant he wasn’t eligible for a traditional heart transplant, according to doctors at University of Maryland Medicine. While the next few weeks will be critical, doctors were thrilled at Lawrence Faucette‘s early response to the pig organ. “You know, I just keep shaking my head – how am I talking to someone who has a pig heart?” Dr Bartley Griffith, who performed the transplant, said. He said doctors are feeling “a great privilege but, you know, a lot of pressure.” The same Maryland team last year performed the world’s first transplant of a genetically modified pig heart into another dying man, David Bennett, who survived just two months.
Faucette knew about the first case but decided the transplant was his best shot. “Nobody knows from this point forward. At least now I have hope and I have a chance,” he said in a video recorded by the hospital before the operation.
There’s a huge shortage of human organs donated for transplant. Attempts at animal-to-human organ transplants have failed for decades, as people’s immune systems immediately destroyed the foreign tissue. Now scientists are trying again using pigs genetically modified to make their organs more humanlike.
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