In what’s being called a medical first, doctors in Maryland have transplanted a pig heart into a Maryland man in a last-ditch effort to save his life.
Baltimore resident David Bennett, 57, had been diagnosed with fatal heart disease, but he was not eligible to receive a human heart, he says. So doctors suggested he volunteer for the experimental surgery, telling him there was no guarantee he’d survive. Bennett agreed to go along with it. “It was either die or do this transplant,” Bennett said the day before his surgery. “I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice.”
In medical first, doctors transplant a pig heart into a patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life and a Maryland hospital says that he’s doing well after the highly experimental surgery. https://t.co/fEHVcgl8Y4 pic.twitter.com/bR1ICaL3Et
— ABC News (@ABC) January 11, 2022
The surgery, performed on Friday, appears to have been a success, doctors say. Although Bennett is still hooked up to a heart-lung machine, a spokesman for the University of Maryland School of Medicine says he’s breathing on his own — but doctors will be keeping a close eye on Bennett in coming weeks to make sure his body doesn’t reject the new organ.
Would you be OK with walking around with a pig heart inside you?
