A 57-year-old patient with terminal heart disease has received a successful transplant of a genetically modified pig heart and is reportedly doing well. Three days ago, David Bennett, a resident of Maryland, agreed to the experimental transplant as he chose to survive over life-threatening arrhythmia.
“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 had said before the surgery took place. According to the reports, Bennett was denied a human heart surgery and was declared ineligible for a conventional heart transplant at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and several other leading transplant centres that reviewed his medical records.
A 57-year-old man is reportedly in a stable condition after undergoing experimental surgery to receive a genetically modified pig’s heart, after he was deemed ineligible for a human transplant. David Bennett consented to the procedure as a last resort.https://t.co/kmBQLa4VC4 pic.twitter.com/L7WhK2CHiH
— RT (@RT_com) January 12, 2022
The complicated procedure was performed by the University of Maryland School of Medicine who noted that a genetically-modified animal heart can function as a human heart without immediate rejection by the body. The University of Maryland School of Medicine decided on the case as they realised that a genetically modified pig’s heart was the only option available for the patient faced with a serious or life-threatening medical condition.
The patient was fully informed of the procedure’s risks and also that the procedure was experimental with unknown risks and benefits. He had been admitted to the hospital over six weeks earlier with life-threatening arrhythmia and was connected to a heart-lung bypass machine to remain alive. In addition to not qualifying to be on the transplant list, he was also deemed ineligible for an artificial heart pump due to his arrhythmia.
A heart arrhythmia is a disease where patient suffers from irregular heartbeats. Heart rhythm problems occur when the electrical signals that coordinate the heart’s beats don’t work properly. The faulty signaling causes the heart to beat too fast, too slow or irregularly.
According to the reports, the patient is being carefully monitored and is able to breathe on his own. He will be carefully monitored over the next days and weeks to determine whether the transplant provides lifesaving benefits. Dr Bartley P. Griffith who surgically transplanted the pig heart into the patient said that this breakthrough surgery has brought the mankind one step closer to solving the organ shortage crisis.
“There are simply not enough donor human hearts available to meet the long list of potential recipients,” Griffith said. “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 added.
