Man dies six weeks after world’s second pig heart transplant

The second patient in the world to have received a heart transplant from a genetically modified pig died six weeks after his operation, and a year and a half after the death of the first patient, announced Wednesday, November 1, the American medical center which performed the operation. Lawrence Faucette, 58, had been deemed ineligible for a human heart transplant due to advanced heart disease. The transplant of a pig heart being “the only option”, according to a press release from the University of Maryland, published Tuesday.

While the graft initially appeared to take, the patient began showing signs of rejection in recent days, the University of Maryland said. The establishment had already carried out the world’s first transplant of a genetically modified pig heart into a human, in January 2022. The transplantation had raised great hopes, because such xenografts (from an animal to a human) could make it possible to address the shortage of organ donations. Currently, more than 100,000 Americans are on the waiting list for a transplant.