Scientists have worked feverishly to develop pigs whose organs would not be rejected by the human body, research accelerated in the past decade by new gene editing and cloning technologies
In a photo from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, surgeons perform an eight-hour transplant of a genetically modified pig's heart at the University of Maryland School if Medicine in Baltimore, Jan. 7, 2022. The breakthrough may lead one day to new supplies of animal organs for transplant into human patients. (University of Maryland School of Medicine via The New York Times)
A 57-year-old man with life-threatening heart disease has received a heart from a genetically modified pig, a groundbreaking procedure that offers hope to hundreds of thousands of patients with failing organs.
It is the first successful transplant of a pig’s heart into a human being. The eight-hour operation took place in Baltimore on Friday, and the patient, David Bennett Sr. of Maryland, was doing well Monday, according to surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
“It creates the pulse; it creates the pressure; it is his heart,” said Dr. Bartley Griffith, director of the cardiac transplant program at the medical center, who performed the operation.
“It’s working, and it looks normal. We are thrilled, but we don’t know what tomorrow will bring us. This has never been done before.”
Last year, some 41,354 Americans received a transplanted organ, more than half of them receiving kidneys, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, a nonprofit that coordinates the nation’s organ procurement efforts.
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