By Katlego Sekhu
David Bennett Sr, a 57-year-old American man with a life-threatening heart disease successfully received a new heart from a genetically modified pig. His heart was failing.
Dr. Bartley Griffith successfully performed the first transplant of a pig heart into a human being.
Bennett told his surgeon before the transplant that he doesn’t want to die and if he does die then maybe a discovery will be made to help others.
Dr. Robert Montgomery, Director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute says the patient is now off the ventilator.
“The patient is off the ventilator, he is still being partially maintained by an ECMO machine. The plan is to gradually wean that off so that the pig heart will completely take over the work,” he said.
The genetically modified pig had ten different modifications in its genome in order to make it more acceptable in both the human immune system and also other different pathways within the body.
What does this mean for the future?
The transplant could provide a solution to the high shortage of donor human organs.
Dr. Griffith says the driver for this was to offer an opportunity for patients with severe heart disease who couldn’t qualify or get a heart in time.
“The driver for this was to provide an opportunity for patients with end-stage heart disease who couldn’t qualify or just didn’t get a heart in time to treat their poor heart function with a transplant,” he said in part.
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