US Man Who Got The First Pig Heart Transplant Dies After 2 Months: Hospital

The surgery marked the first time that a genetically-modified animal heart can function as a human heart without being immediately rejected by the body.

New Delhi: A man who received a pig’s heart in an experimental surgery has died just two months later, as reported by the news agency PTI.

David Bennett, who became the first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig on January 7, died Tuesday at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Doctors didn’t give an exact cause of death, saying only that his condition had begun deteriorating several days earlier, as reported by AP.

Bennett's son showered his praise on the hospital for offering the last-ditch experiment.

"We are grateful for every innovative moment, every crazy dream, every sleepless night that went into this historic effort,” David Bennett Jr. said in a statement released by the University of Maryland School of Medicine as quoted by AP. “We hope this story can be the beginning of hope and not the end.”

Earlier, the surgeons, who are faculty at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into a 57-year-old patient with terminal heart disease.

In a statement, UMMC said that the first-of-its-kind transplant was the patient’s only option for survival after being deemed ineligible for traditional transplant, at the UMMC, as well as other leading transplant centers. Three days after the historic surgery, the patient is still doing well, the statement said.

The surgery marked the first time that a genetically-modified animal heart can function as a human heart without being immediately rejected by the body. 

David Bennett was monitored carefully and was under supervision for a number of weeks. This was 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,” Bennett was quoted as saying in the statement, a day before the surgery was conducted.