(Washington) In what is a medical first, doctors successfully transplanted a pig’s heart into a human, in a last-ditch attempt to save the patient’s life. A Maryland hospital said Monday he was doing well three days after the experimental surgery.
While it’s too early to know if the surgery will really work, it marks a milestone in a decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for vital transplants.
Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center say the transplant proves that a heart from a genetically modified animal can function in the human body without immediate rejection.
The patient, David Bennett, 57, knew there was no guarantee the experiment would work, but he was dying, ineligible for a human heart transplant and had no other option, his son said at the Associated Press.
“It was either to die or to accept this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a roll of the dice, but it’s my last choice, ”Bennett said a day before the operation, according to a statement provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine.