EFE – The first patient to receive a transplant from a pig heart died two months after the surgery, according to the University of Maryland School of Medicine Medical Center (USA), which performed the historic operation.
David Bennett, a man of 57 years old and suffering from terminal heart disease, underwent surgery on January 7 at the medical center and became the first person to receive a genetically modified pig heart.
Bennet died Tuesday after his condition deteriorated several days ago, the hospital said today.
After doctors realized he would not survive, he was placed in palliative care, according to the Maryland School of Medicine statement.
The death came two months after a historic operation that was successfully performed and which, the same institution explained in January, was “the only option available to the patient,” since several hospitals had ruled out the possibility of a conventional transplant.
“It was either die or have this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last option,” Bennett said at the time.
Members of the medical team said they were “devastated” by the patient’s loss, as noted in the statement by the transplant’s author, Bartley P.Griffith, M.D., who highlighted Bennett’s courage and desire to live.
Muhammad M. Mohiuddin, director of the cardiothoracic program at the center, stressed his gratitude to the patient for his “historic role” in the progress of genobiotransplantation.
