A Maryland man facing death chose to take chance on a pig heart to save him. The man was not eligible for a heart transplant so the 57 year old agreed to take part in the experiment and recieve a pig heart to keep him alive. It is too early to tell whether the surgery will be a success.
In 1st, US surgeons transplant pig heart into human patient
From abcnews.go.com
2022-01-10 21:30:42
Excerpt:
In a medical first, doctors transplanted a pig heart into a patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life and a Maryland hospital said Monday that he’s doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery.
While it’s too soon to know if the operation really will work, it marks a step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center say the transplant showed that a heart from a genetically modified animal can function in the human body without immediate rejection.
The patient, David Bennett, 57, knew there was no guarantee the experiment would work but he was dying, ineligible for a human heart transplant and had no other option, his son told The Associated Press.
“It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” Bennett said a day before the surgery, according to a statement provided by the University of Maryland…