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US surgeons again transplant pig hearts into dying men. Photo/News9
WASHINGTON – The surgeons United States of America (US) again transplanted a pig’s heart in an attempt to prolong the life of a dying man. Two days later, a doctor said, the man cracked a joke and was able to sit up in a chair
This is the second patient to undergo this kind of trial.
According to doctors at the University of Maryland Medicine, a 58-year-old Navy veteran is almost certain to face death from heart failure. But other health problems made him ineligible for a traditional heart transplant.
“No one knows from now onwards. At least now I have hope and I have a chance,” said Lawrence Faucette, of Frederick, Maryland, in a video recorded by the hospital before surgery on Wednesday.
“I will fight tooth and nail for every breath I can take,” he added as quoted by News9, Saturday (23/9/2023).
Although the next few weeks will be critical, doctors are very pleased with Faucette’s initial response to the pig organs transplanted into his body.
“You know, I just kept shaking my head – how could I talk to someone with a pig heart?” Bartley Griffith, who performed the transplant, told The Associated Press.
He said doctors feel “a great privilege, but, you know, there’s a lot of pressure.”
The same Maryland team last year performed the world’s first genetically modified pig heart transplant into another dying man, David Bennett, who lived only two months.
