US Man Passes Away 40 Days After Getting the Second Pig Heart Transplant in History
Forty days after the extremely experimental surgery, the
second recipient of a transplanted heart from a pig passed away, CNN said. On
September 20, Lawrence Faucette, 58, who was suffering from heart failure, was
given the genetically altered pig heart. After
the procedure, he lived for almost six weeks before passing away on Monday.
""After his operation, Mr. Faucette had recovered well enough to participate in
physical therapy, visit with relatives, and play cards with his wife, Ann.
His heart started to reject a few days ago, which is the biggest problem with conventional organ
transplants utilizing human organs as well. Mr. Faucette passed away on October
30th, despite the best efforts of the medical staff, according to a hospital
statement.
Mr. Faucette was a former National Institutes of Health lab technician and veteran of the Navy.
Prior to arriving at the Maryland hospital, he had been denied a standard heart
transplant due to further medical issues. Heart failure was almost certain for
the father of two, if not for the experimental transplant.
Mrs. Ann Faucette said her husband "knew his time with us was short, and this was his last
chance to do for others." He had no idea he would live as long as he did.
In order to ensure that others have the opportunity to receive a new heart in the event that a
human organ is unavailable, it was Mr. Faucette's final request that we utilize
all of the knowledge we have gained from our experience.Then he professed his
love to the group of medical professionals who had gathered around him. The
clinical director of the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Cardiac
Xenotransplantation Program, Dr. Bartley Griffith, stated, "We will miss
him terribly."
A potential answer to the ongoing lack of human organ donors is xenotransplantation, the
transplantation of animal organs into humans. But because the foreign organ is
attacked by the patient's immune system, these surgeries are difficult. The
idea was to genetically alter pig components so they would resemble human
organs more closely.In addition, Maryland researchers carried out the first-ever
heart transplant in history last year, inserting a genetically modified pig's
heart into a man. Two months following the transplant, he passed away.
According to a statement from the University of Maryland Medical System, David
Bennett, 57, received his transplant on January 7, 2022, and passed away on
March 8.