High hopes were placed on pig heart transplant by David Bennett (Getty)
The first patient in the world who underwent To transplant a pig’s heart He was genetically modified following two months of the operation, according to what was announced on Wednesday by the hospital where he was being treated.
The University of Maryland Hospital said in a statement that David Bennett, 57, died on Tuesday following his condition “began to deteriorate in recent days.” The statement added: “When it became clear that he would not recover from this condition, it was extended with medical care for the dying.”
“A clear cause of death was not established at the time of his death,” a hospital spokesman told AFP, adding that doctors were conducting a review of the case, which will be published in a scientific journal.
But the director of the university’s non-human heart transplant program, Mohamed Mohieldin, explained, in a statement he read via video, that Bennett was suffering from “bouts of infection… We had difficulty maintaining a balance between suppressing his immunity and controlling the infection.”
The operation, which took place on the seventh of January, raised high hopes that animal transplants in humans would allow to fill the need for organs for patients waiting for their operations.
The hospital explained that “the heart worked very well for several weeks, without any indication of rejection” by the body. After the operation, “the patient was able to spend time with his family and participate in physical therapy sessions to help him regain his strength.”
Thus, the researchers consider that the experiment was successful.
Muhammad Mohieldin said: “We obtained very valuable information, and realized that a genetically modified pig’s heart can function properly inside the human body.” “We remain optimistic and intend to continue our work during future clinical trials,” he added.
The pig, from which the heart was removed, underwent a genetic modification to avoid immediate rejection of the transplanted organ, which did not actually happen.
A new experimental drug was also used, in addition to the drugs usually used to prevent rejection of a transplanted organ, with the aim of disrupting the work of the immune system. During transplants, the real danger is that the immune system treats the transplanted organ as a foreign body and begins attacking it.
David Bennett was deemed ineligible for a human heart transplant. On the eve of the operation, he said, “I was faced with two choices: either death or this transplant. I want to live.”
“My father continued to fight to the end to save his life and spend more time with his family,” David Bennett Jr., the patient’s son, said in a statement. tremendous effort.” “We hope that this story will be the beginning of hope, not the end,” he added.
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About 110,000 Americans are still on the waiting list to receive a transplant, and more than 6,000 people who need such operations die annually in the country.
Not operations Transplantation of animal organs In the new human body. Physicians have attempted transsexual transplants since at least the 17th century, and the first experiments focused on monkeys.
In 1984, a heart from a baboon was implanted in the body of a girl named “Baby Faye”, but the little girl did not live more than twenty days following the operation.
Also, heart valves from pigs have been used extensively in human transplants, and their skin is used in transplants on people with major burns.
Pigs are also an important source of organ donation because of their size and rapid growth, and also because of their many young.
After the operation was announced earlier this year, American media revealed that David Bennett had been convicted many years ago of stabbing a man in 1988, which paralyzed the victim.
However, medical ethics prevent physicians from being influenced by patients’ pasts when treating them.
“We are devastated by Bennett’s passing,” said Dr. Bartley Griffiths, the surgeon who performed the transplant. “He has proven to be a brave patient,” and has become known to “millions around the world.”
(France Brush)