A 50-year-old American man who received the world’s first pig heart transplant has died. After the surgery, I was fine for a while without any rejection, but following two months my heart stopped.
Correspondent Hong Hee-jung.
[기자]
Fifty-seven-year-old David Bennett was diagnosed with heart disease.
He received the world’s first pig heart transplant last January.
This surgery used a pig’s heart in which the genetic material that causes the human body to reject it has been removed.
After 8 hours of surgery, my heart was beating properly and my blood pressure returned to normal.
[바틀리 그리피스/메릴랜드대 교수·수술 집도의 : 환자는 깨어난 상태입니다. 회복하면서 가족들과 대화도 주고받고 있습니다.]
For some time following surgery, the transplanted heart did not even cause rejection.
A video of him watching a Super Bowl game with a physical therapist has also been released.
But the pig heart stopped two months following the transplant.
The hospital did not reveal the exact cause, but said the patient’s health had deteriorated for a few days.
[무하마드 모히우딘/메릴랜드대 동물·인간이식 책임자 : 베넷은 용감한 사람이었고, 그의 기여가 없었다면 우리는 이 같은 실험을 이행하지 못했을 겁니다.]
In the meantime, the operation of transplanting animal organs into humans has been continuously studied.
However, most of them failed as the patient experienced rejection of the animal organs.
Bennett’s son said, “I hope this challenge will be the beginning of another hope.”
