Status: 09.03.2022 5:24 p.m
The transplantation was celebrated as a milestone in medicine: In January, surgeons implanted a genetically modified pig heart in a heart patient for the first time. Now the man is dead.
He was the first person in the world to have a pig heart implanted as a replacement organ: David Bennett has now died two months after the operation. His condition had been deteriorating for a few days, said the University Hospital of Maryland in Baltimore, USA.
The genetically modified pig heart was implanted in the 57-year-old in an operation lasting several hours at the beginning of January because of his fatal heart disease. The transplant was considered a medical milestone.
Palliative care treatment
The pig had been genetically modified before the heart transplant. In the process, a gene was eliminated that forms a certain sugar – otherwise this would have triggered a strong immune reaction, which would have resulted in the organ being rejected in the patient’s body. Another gene that would have caused pig heart tissue to overgrow was also knocked out.
After the operation, Bennett was on a heart-lung machine for a few days. His condition was stable after that, doctors said. He was able to spend time with his family and did physiotherapy for regeneration. After it became clear a few days ago that he would not recover, Bennett was treated for palliative care. He spent the last hours of his life talking to his family.
Grateful for the life-extending option
“We are saddened by the death of Mr. Bennett. He was a noble and brave patient who fought to the end,” said surgeon Bartley Griffith, who performed the heart transplant.
They are grateful for the life-extending option, says Bennett’s son, according to the hospital. His father fought to survive until the end and wanted to spend time with his family. “We were able to spend some precious weeks together while he recovered from surgery. Weeks we would not have had without this miraculous effort,” the son said.
Great hope xenotransplantation
In the US alone, around 110,000 people are currently waiting for a donor organ. According to official figures, more than 6,000 people die each year before a transplant can take place.
Because of the lack of human donor organs, researchers have high hopes for so-called xenotransplantation – the transplanting of organs from animals to humans. Heart valves from pigs and pigskin for burn victims are already being transplanted. Pigs are considered ideal donor animals because of their size, rapid growth and good breeding characteristics.