Image source, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Surgeons Bartley Griffith and David Bennett (right)
The world’s first genetically modified pig heart-fitted person has died.
David Bennett, who was fitted with the heart of a genetically modified pig, has lived with it for only 2 months. His doctors in Baltimore said his condition had worsened over the past few days and that Bennett had died on March 8 without treatment.
Thus the U.S. Medical Regulator allowed doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center University to match the pig’s heart with no other way to save his life. Bennett was bedridden for six weeks before the operation with the help of tools.
In this case, Bennett underwent heart transplant surgery on January 7. Since then he has been spending time with his family. He also wants to come home and meet his dog. But his condition has worsened.
“Bennett is a brave man;
“The transplant operation performed on my father was the beginning of hope. Told the news agency.
As Dr. Griffith said earlier, “it’s a step closer to the solution to the organ shortage crisis in the world of surgery.” Currently every day in the United States 17 people wait for transplant surgery and die without getting a transplant. And more than a million are on the waiting list for transplant surgery.
The possibility of using animal organs called xenotransplantation to meet the need for transplant surgery has long been considered. And the use of pig heart valves is already a common one.
Image source, NYU LANGONE / getty images
Image depicting
In October 2021 last year, surgeons in New York announced that they had successfully transplanted a pig’s kidney into a man. That surgery at the time was, by far, the most advanced experiment in the field of transplant surgery. The person being treated had a brain hemorrhage at the time. Again that treatment was carried out when there was no hope that he would survive.
10 genetic mutations in the pig organ
James Galleger, Health and Science Journalist
The first pig-heart transplant was a major milestone in the medical field. When organs of another species are used, one’s own body tissues may kill the fitted organs by transplantation. This is called “hyperacute rejection”. To counter this, scientists have made 10 genetic mutations in a pig’s organ.
It was a tense moment when the pig’s heart fitted into the patient’s body. But excessive hyperrejection did not occur.
A month after the operation, when I spoke to the team that performed the operation, they said there was no sign of organ rejection and that the donated heart was functioning like a “Ferrari engine”. But they warned that Bennett was still weak.
What happened next and the exact cause of Bennett’s death is unclear. The results of those studies will determine how close we are to the future of using pigs to address the global shortage of alternative organs.
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