A MAN in America with a terminal heart disease has been the first person to receive a successful transplant of a genetically modified pig heart.
The surgery was conducted by the University of Maryland Medicine and was the only option available to the individual as he had been deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant.
The patient, David Bennett (57), is doing well in the three days since the surgery and will be monitored over the coming weeks to determine whether the transplant provides lifesaving benefits.
"It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice," said Mr Bennett the day before the surgery was completed.
"I look forward to getting out of bed after I recover."
The US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorisation for the surgery on New Year’s Eve through its expanded access (compassionate use) provision. This is used when an experimental product (the pig's heart) is the only option available for a patient with a serious or life-threatening medical condition.
"This was a breakthrough surgery and brings us one step closer to solving the organ shortage crisis," said Bartley P Griffith, MD, who surgically transplanted the pig heart into Mr Bennett.
"There are simply not enough donor human hearts available to meet the long list of potential recipients. We are proceeding cautiously, but we are also optimistic that this first-in-the-world surgery will provide an important new option for patients in the future."
About 110,000 Americans are currently waiting for an organ transplant, and more than 6,000 patients die each year before getting one, according to the federal government’s organdonor.gov.
In Ireland, there were 829 patients active on the organ transplant waiting list in 2020, the majority of who were waiting for Sidney transplants (661).
Transplanting of animal organs into humans (xenotransplantation) was first tried in the 1980s but was abandoned after an infant, born with a fatal heart condition, received a baboon heart transplant and died within a month of the procedure due to the immune system's rejection of the heart.
However, for many years, pig heart valves have been used successfully for replacing valves in humans.
