Pig heart transplanted into a human in historic first 

In a historic first, US doctors transplanted a pig heart into a human patient at a Maryland hospital on January 10, 2022. The surgery went miraculously well and the patient was doing well three days after surgery. 

The doctors transplanted a pig heart into the patient in the last effort to save his life. It is though too soon to know if the operation will really work.

It marks the first effort to use animal organs for life-saving transplants. The transplant showed that a heart from a genetically modified animal can function in the human body without immediate rejection.

Who is the patient?

The patient is a 57-year-old man called David Bennett from Maryland. There was no guarantee that the experiment would work but he was dying and was not eligible for a human heart transplant. The doctors had no other option but to try another option.

In a statement recorded by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, David Bennet said there was no other option. He said, "It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it's a shot in the dark, but it's my last choice."

David Bennett was breathing on his own after the surgery on January 10th while still connected to a heart-lung machine to help his new heart.

The surgery's success will be determined in the next few weeks as Bennett recovers. The doctors will be carefully monitoring how the heart is functioning during the period. 

Significance

If the pig heart transplant works then there will be an endless supply of these organs for patients who are suffering. It will fill up the huge shortage of human organs for transplant cases. Scientists over the years have researched on using animal organs instead.

Animal organ transplant - Past Cases

All prior attempts at animal organ transplants have failed after the patient's bodies rejected the animal organ. The closest transplant procedure was conducted on baby Fae, a dying infant, who lived for 21 days with a baboon heart in 1984. 

How is the latest surgery different from past cases?

This time, the surgeons in Maryland had used a pig heart that had undergone gene-editing to remove sugar in its cells that's largely responsible for hyper-fast organ rejection. 

Currently, several biotech companies are developing pig organs for human transplant. The pig heart that was used for the recent operation had come from Revivicor, which is a subsidiary company of United Therapeutics.

The US Food and Drug Administration had allowed the surgery under a compassionate use emergency authorization, when a patient with a life-threatening condition has no other options.