The first person to receive a pig heart transplant has died two months following procedure, according to the University of Maryland.
The 57-year-old male, David Bennett, previously suffered arrythmia but was forced to stay on cardiac support as his irregular heartbeat did not allow for a mechanical heart pump.
A Shot in The Dark
The decision to take a pig heart transplant was the final option for Bennett. He was ineligible for a human heart transplant. He told the University of Maryland, “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.”
The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t approve of porcine heart transplants. However, due to Bennett’s heart failure, irregular heartbeat and previous lack of compliance with medical instructions, the administration cited the “compassionate use” rule, dubbed for emergency situations, as their way of approval.
Following the procedure, Bennett appeared to be recovering well. The Maryland hospital even released video of him working with his therapist while watching the Super Bowl.
What We Know
Maryland Medicine has not yet officially announced Bennett’s cause of death. Though the autopsy is likely to reveal rejection or infection as these are often the outcomes of deceased transplant patients.
Animal transplants to humans—xenotransplantation—have been somewhat unsuccessful in the past due to human bodies rejecting animal organs.
To promote the human bodies acceptable of the pig heart, scientists modified the pig’s genes by removing three rejection triggers while adding six human immune acceptance genes.
Are Animal Hearts the Answer?
Bennett’s gene-edited pig heart survived the longest in terms of experimental xenotransplantation. Before Bennett, the most successful heart xenotransplantation was an infant named Baby Fae who survived with a baboon’s heart for 21 days.
Following the transplant, Dr. Bartley P. Griffith from the University of Maryland Medicine said “this was a breakthrough surgery and brings us one step closer” to solving the organ shortage.
Griffith worked alongside Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, who worked to establish the Maryland Medicine Cardiac Xenotransplantation Program. Mohiuddin believes Bennett’s passing doesn’t indicate heart xenotransplantation is impossible.
“We are grateful for every innovative moment, every crazy dream, every sleepless night that went into this historic effort,” David Bennett Jr. said in a statement released by the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “We hope this story can be the beginning of hope and not the end.”
More from Pork Business:
> Man Receives Heart from Genetically Modified Pig in Groundbreaking Surgery
> German Researchers to Breed Pigs for Human Heart Transplants This Year
