An American man who became the second person to undergo a “pig heart transplant” passed away on Monday, six weeks after the experimental procedure, the Associated Press reported.
The University of Maryland School of Medicine revealed that the transplanted heart initially appeared healthy for the first month but began displaying signs of rejection in recent days.
Lawrence Faucette, 58, was suffering from heart failure and was not eligible for a conventional heart transplant when he received the genetically modified pig heart on September 20. The report quoted Faucette’s wife, Ann, saying, “Knew his time with us was short and this was his last chance to do for others. He never imagined he would survive as long as he did.”
The Maryland medical team previously conducted the world’s first transplant of a genetically modified pig heart into another terminally ill patient last year. David Bennett, the recipient of the first pig heart, survived for two months before the heart failed for reasons that remain unclear, although later, signs of a pig virus were discovered inside the organ.
Lessons learned from the initial experiment led to improvements, including more rigorous virus testing, before the second attempt, but it failed too.
