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It is a world first that could change the lives of millions of people waiting for a transplant. In the United States, a patient received a transplant from a genetically modified pig heart.
The 57-year-old American was convicted of terminal heart disease. He owes his luck to an animal. Indeed, a pig’s heart was transplanted to him. A risky operation he knew was dangerous. “He told me (…) I don’t want to die, but if I die, maybe you will learn something to help others”, recount Bartley Griffith, a surgeon at the Maryland School of Medicine.
Operated Friday, January 7, the patient survived. “He’s awake, he’s recovering and talking to his caregivers. We hope that his recovery will continue as he does now “, continues Bartley Griffith. We still have to be careful, but this is a major step forward. All this thanks to a genetic modification to limit the risk of rejection. While animal-to-human transplantation is successful in the longer term, it could be able become a solution for hundreds of thousands of patients waiting for a donor.
University of Maryland News Release
Biomedicine Agency
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