A 57-year old American man becomes the first person in the world to receive a genetically modified heart of a pig.
David Bennett is doing very well three days after undergoing the surgery according to the University of Maryland Medicine.
In a press statement on Monday, the University said that Bennett had a terminal heart disease and the pig’s heart was the only available option.
Medical reviews conducted on the patient indicated that he was not eligible to have a conventional heart transplant or an artificial heart pump.
“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,” he said before the surgery.
The US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization for the surgery on December 31.
For the team that conducted the transplant, the success now concludes a research that they had done for years and the success can now save lots of lives.
The pig’s heart was modified in a way that the genes that can be rejected by the human’s body were removed. Another gene was also taken out to prevent excessive pig heart tissue growth while six human tissues responsible for immune acceptance were inserted.
Bennett will now be monitored by his doctors for days to weeks to determine whether the transplant works and if he will develop any complications.
Surgeon Dr. Bartley P. Griffith is positive that the surgery will provide a new option for patients in future.
“There are simply not enough donor human hearts available to meet the long list of potential recipients. We are proceeding cautiously, but we are also optimistic that this first-in-the-world surgery will provide an important new option for patients in the future,” he said in the statement.
The heart was provided by Revivicor, a regenerative medicine company based in Blacksburg, Virginia,
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