“This was a breakthrough surgery and brings us one step closer to solving the organ shortage crisis. There are simply not enough donor human hearts available to meet the long list of potential recipients,” Dr Bartley Griffith, who surgically transplanted the pig heart into the patient, said in a statement.
To move ahead with the experimental surgery, the university obtained an emergency authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration on New Year’s Eve through its compassionate use program.“The FDA used our data and data on the experimental pig to authorise the transplant in an end-stage heart disease patient who had no other treatment options,” said Dr Muhammad Mohiuddin, who heads the University’s program on xenotransplantation - transplanting animal organs into humans.
Members of the surgical team show the pig heart for transplant into patient David Bennett in Baltimore.Bennett’s genetically modified pig heart was provided by Revivicor, a regenerative medicine company based in Blacksburg, Virginia. On the morning of the surgery, the transplant team removed the pig’s heart and placed it into a special device to preserve its function until the surgery.
And how’s the pig doing?