U.S. Man Gets Pig's Heart: First Pig to Human Heart Transplant

A man in Maryland is living his sixth day with a pig heart in his chest after a groundbreaking surgery. This is a first for medical science. U.S. doctors transplanted a pig heart into a human patient, in a last ditch effort to save his life.

Surgeons at the University of Maryland transplanted the pig heart into 57 year-old David Bennett. According to his family, Bennett is aware there's no guarantee that the experiment will work, but he agreed to the procedure because he is not eligible for a human heart transplant. 

During the 9 hour operation, doctors replaced Bennett's heart with one from a 240-pound pig, which was genetically modified for this purpose.

David Bennett Sr. (right) received a new heart from a genetically modified pig. Dr. Bartley Griffith (left) conducted the procedure.

It's not the first time this type of procedure has taken place. There have been attempts in the past but have failed because of genetic differences that caused infections or even organ rejection. But scientists have now reportedly overcome this problem by editing away the potentially harmful genes. However, despite the changes that have been made to the genes the patient is still not out of the odds just yet. 

The new procedure marked a major step in the decades long quest to use animals as organ donors. If proven successful, scientists hope that pig organs can now help overcome the shortages of donor organs especially for patients like David Bennett. 

Doctors transplanted a pig heart into a patient

Listening to the doctor explain the risks that are associated with an organ transplant from a pig into a human being. 

"Probably the biggest risk is now. We seem to be past what we consider the hyper acute rejection phase that we would normally have seen in an animal organ that wasn't specially treated. So we feel good about that one so we're preparing for the next attack on his organ. We know that the pig heart will be attacked by different soldiers in our body, different immune players can take it out and we have designed a treatment plan in addition to the humanized genetically edited heart to try to account for that," Dr. Bartley Griffith said. 

About 110,000 Americans are currently waiting for an organ transplant and at least about 6,000 patients die every single year because they don't get an organ for transplant. But now thankfully with this new emerging technology organs such as hearts, liver, kidney, and even lungs can be transplanted from pigs directly onto human being. 

The pigs have long been considered a source of potential transplant donors. The organs of pigs are believed to be similar to human beings. Not only their hearts even their kidneys, liver, and lungs are being studied as potential transplant organs.