Posted on 01/10/2022 8:28:38 PM PST by algore
Doctors in Baltimore have transplanted a genetically-modified pig heart into a patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life, in a medical first.
Three days later, David Bennett, 57, is said to be recovering and doing well after the nine-hour procedure.
Experts say it is too soon to know if the operation really will work, but it marks a step forward in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants.
Bennett is breathing on his own without a ventilator, but is still using a Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine that helps pump blood throughout his body. Doctors hope to wean him off the device slowly.
Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center say the transplant showed that a heart from a genetically modified animal can function in the human body without immediate rejection.
And this medical first could one day help solve the chronic shortage of organ donations.
Bennett 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 told The Associated Press.
'It was either die or do this transplant,' said Bennett, a day before the surgery, according to a statement provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
'I want to live. I know it's a shot in the dark, but it's my last choice.'
Dr. Bartley Griffith said it was a 'memorable' and 'pretty strange' conversation.
'I said, 'We can't give you a human heart; you don't qualify. But maybe we can use one from an animal, a pig,' Dr. Griffith said.
'It's never been done before, but we think we can do it.
'I wasn't sure he was understanding me,' Dr. Griffith added.
'Then he said, 'Well, will I oink?
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
According to the article, it was his heart failure and an irregular heart beat that made him ineligible. Not sure why those two conditions together make someone ineligible?
Probably just too big for her little chest.
Could be not just the heart but the distributor in his nervous system not sending the right spark.
Oh... okay. So sort of a multi system issue vs a singular one. Thanks! :)
This kind of thing…regardless of “eligibility”… makes me think of wonderful Dr. Walter E. Williams and his rants about transplants. It should be an open market, and not just “who was first” and “most likely to survive” and “age”, etc.
I would have willed myself through that dangerous operation just to be able to wake up in recovery, and when they ask how I’m doing, give a long pause and then say: “Oink.”
They’ve been using pig heart flaps for valve surgeries for years now, very successful.
Why does he not qualify for a human heart? A VaxxiNazi resistor, perhaps?
He will now be able to eat bacon as much as he wants!
‘Then he said, ‘Well, will I oink?
_____________
The courageous spirit of men!
I tend to agree. Imagine how many more people would have good, transplanted kidneys if that were the case, rather than the artificial scarcities and waiting lists of today. And in that market, there would be nothing stopping people from donating them for free if they wish.
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