2023-09-24 04:41:14
A 58-year-old patient received a pig heart transplant this week. This is the second time that the operation has been performed; the first to attempt the experiment, David Bennett, died two months after the implantation.
A 58-year-old patient this week became the second person in the world to have a genetically modified pig heart transplanted, a new illustration of a very active area of research in recent years. Such an operation was carried out for the first time in 2022 in the same establishment, the medical school of the University of Maryland, in the United States.
The then-patient, David Bennett, died about two months after the procedure, “due to a multitude of factors, including poor health” before the transplant, the university wrote in a statement Friday .
Such transplants of animal organs into humans, called xenografts, could offer a solution to the chronic shortage of organ donations. More than 100,000 Americans are currently on the waiting list for a transplant.
“The only option”
The new operation took place on September 20. Lawrence Faucette, a former retired soldier, suffered from a serious heart disease which almost certainly doomed him. He was declared ineligible to receive a human heart transplant, and this solution therefore represented “the only option” for him, according to the press release.
“At least now I have hope and I have a chance,” he declared before the intervention, according to the same source.
“We have no expectations other than to spend more time together,” his wife said. “It can be as simple as sitting on the porch in front of the house and having our coffee together.”
Lawrence Faucette is currently breathing alone, and his new heart is working well, without assistance, doctors said. He takes immunosuppressive treatments, as well as “a new antibody therapy”, in order to avoid rejection.
Xenografts pose a challenge because the recipient’s immune system tends to attack the foreign organ. This is why pigs are genetically modified, to also reduce this risk.
Recently, kidney transplants from genetically modified pigs have also been performed on brain dead patients. The Transplant Institute at NYU Langone Hospital in New York announced this month that it had successfully operated a pig kidney on a deceased person for two months, a record.
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