For the first time in the medical field, doctors transplanted a pig’s heart into a patient in a last-ditch attempt to save his life. A Maryland hospital said he was fine three days after the experimental operation.
While it’s too early to tell if the operation will work, it marks a step in a decades-long quest to someday use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center say the transplant has shown that the heart of a genetically engineered animal can function in the human body without immediate rejection.
The patients name is David Bennett, 57, and he knew there was no guarantee the experiment would work. But, according to his son, he was dying, ineligible for a human heart transplant and had no other choice.