A 58-year-old man who underwent a groundbreaking pig heart transplant has sadly passed away, according to his doctors in Maryland. Lawrence Faucette, who received the genetically modified pig heart on September 20, had been struggling with heart failure and was not eligible for a traditional heart transplant.
Initially, the transplanted pig heart appeared healthy for about a month. However, it began showing signs of rejection in recent days, ultimately leading to Faucette’s death on Monday.
In a statement from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Faucette’s wife, Ann, mentioned that her husband knew his time was limited and viewed this experimental surgery as his last chance to help others. He had never expected to survive as long as he did.
This is the second such procedure performed by the Maryland medical team. They conducted the world’s first transplant of a genetically altered pig heart into another patient last year, which lasted for two months before the heart failed, with signs of a pig virus later discovered inside the organ. Lessons learned from that initial experiment, including improved virus testing, informed the second attempt.
Dr. Bartley Griffith, the surgeon leading the transplant at the University of Maryland Medical Center, stated that Faucette’s final wish was for the medical community to make the most of the knowledge gained from their experiences.
For decades, attempts at animal-to-human organ transplants, known as xenotransplants, had failed because of the immediate rejection of foreign tissue by the recipients’ immune systems. However, scientists are now making efforts to use genetically modified pigs to create organs more similar to human ones.
