Medical experiment in the USA
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Doctors transplant a pig heart for the first time
At the University of Maryland Hospital in the US, a team of doctors has implanted the heart of a genetically modified pig in a human for the first time.
Photo: AFP/-
Baltimore The experiment with no guarantee of success was the patient’s only chance. According to the Baltimore clinic, the 57-year-old patient is doing well three days after the operation. The organ of a genetically modified pig was used.
Doctors in the USA have transplanted a pig heart into a seriously ill patient for the first time. Three days after the surgery, the patient is doing well, the University of Maryland Medical Center said. The transplantation has shown that a heart from a genetically modified animal can function without being immediately rejected. Whether the highly experimental operation was actually a success remains to be seen.
The 57-year-old patient’s son said his father knew there was no guarantee of the experiment’s success, but he lay dying with no prospect of a human heart transplant. The University of Maryland quoted patient David Bennett as saying, “I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice.” He said the same thing the day before the operation at the Baltimore hospital. The operation on Friday lasted seven hours.
For decades, medical professionals have strived to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Previous attempts failed, mainly because the patient’s body quickly rejected the animal organ. In 1984, an infant lived with the heart of a baboon for 21 days.
The difference this time: The surgeons used the heart of a genetically modified pig. A sugar was removed from the cells that is responsible for the extremely rapid organ rejection. “If this works, there will be an endless supply of these organs for people who are suffering,” said Muhammad Mohiuddin, the scientific director of the university’s animal-to-human transplant program.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization for the operation. It is possible when a life-threatening patient has no other options.