Breakthrough: A pig’s heart was implanted in a terminally ill patient at a Maryland hospital
The 57-year-old was left with no chance of survival, so he agreed to participate in the dramatic experiment, during which scientists genetically engineered the animal’s heart. In the meantime he is feeling well, but it is too early to know if the surgery will prolong his life
Doctors at a Maryland hospital were able to implant a pig’s heart in a patient’s body, in a last-ditch effort to save his life – and in good condition a few days after the experimental surgery.
Breakthrough analysis (Photo: AP)
Although it is too early to know if the surgery will really work, performing it marks a step in a decades-long journey to use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center said the transplant shows that a genetically engineered animal heart can function in the human body without immediate rejection.
The patient, David Bennett, a 57-year-old Maryland home remodeler, knew there was no guarantee that the experimental transplant would work. However, he is dying and unfit to deceive a human heart, and since he had no other option he agreed to the experiment – so his son told the Associated Press.
“It was either to 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 the day before the surgery.
On Monday, Bennett breathed on his own while connected to a heart-lung machine, to help his new heart. The next few weeks will be critical as Bennett recovers from the surgery and doctors will closely monitor his heart condition.
David Bennett (Photo: AP)
There is a huge shortage of human organs donated for transplantation, prompting scientists to try to figure out how to use animal organs instead. Last year, there were just over 3,800 heart transplants in the United States, marking a record number. This is according to the United Organ Sharing Network, which oversees the country’s transplant system.
“If it works, there will be an endless supply of organs for patients,” said Dr. Muhammad Mohiudin, the scientific director of the Animal-Human Transplant Program at the University of Maryland.
This is not the first time such an experiment has been performed, but the previous ones have failed, mainly because the patients’ bodies quickly rejected the animal’s organs. It should be noted that in 1984, Baby Phi, a dying baby, lived 21 days with a baboon’s heart.
But the difference with the current transplant is that the surgeons from Maryland used a genetically modified pig’s heart to remove sugar in its cells, which are responsible for that rapid organ rejection. Some biotechnology companies reduce pig organs for human transplantation.
The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees such trials, allowed the surgery under the so-called “compassionate use” emergency permit, when the patient is in a life-threatening condition and there are no other options.
(Photo: AP)
Over the years, scientists have reduced such experiments in different types of monkeys and switched to pigs. Just last September, researchers in New York conducted an experiment indicating that pigs may have a promise of animal transplants per person. In the experiment, doctors temporarily attached a pig’s kidney to the body of a deceased person, and saw it begin to work.
Dr Robert Montgomery, who led the experiment in New York, said: “This is an extraordinary breakthrough. As a heart transplant recipient, myself with a genetic heart disorder, I am thrilled by this news and the hope it gives to my family and other patients, who will eventually be saved by this breakthrough. “
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