Man Dies Two Months After Getting Heart Transplant From Genetically Modified Pig

David Bennett (57) has died two months after receiving a groundbreaking heart transplant surgery.

Bennett received the first of its kind procedure in January after he had been hospitalized for six weeks with a life-threatening arrhythmia and had been connected to a heart-lung bypass machine.

The doctors of Maryland Medical Center did not disclose if the death has been caused by complications due to the transplant. They said in a statement that Bennett had “began deteriorating several days ago”

“After it became clear that he would not recover, he was given compassionate palliative care,” the hospital said. “He was able to communicate with his family during his final hours.”

Bennett’s son David Bennett thanked his father’s doctors in a statement released through the hospital.

“Their exhaustive efforts and energy, paired with my dad’s insatiable will to live, created a hopeful environment during an uphill climb,” he said.

Up until the end, my father wanted to continue fighting to preserve his life and spend more time with his beloved family, including his two sisters, his two children, and his five grandchildren, and his cherished dog Lucky. We were able to spend some precious weeks together while he recovered from the transplant surgery, weeks we would not have had without this miraculous effort.”

One may wonder why the heart of a pig? The heart transplant was a milestone in the field of xenotransplantation, the sourcing of animal organs to address the human organ supply crisis. In order for someone to get an organ, another person has to die and although people die every day, not all of them are organ donors. This is the reason why there is a long waiting list when it comes to organ transplants.

The scarcity of human organs for transplants has also given rise to criminal activities like the unlawful harvesting of human organs to sell on the black market. If doctors have more successful cases like Bennett’s then such criminal activities will lessen. The fact that he manage to live for two months after the transplant shows that there could be hope for those who have a need for organ transplant surgery but have no donor.