In 1st, US surgeons transplant pig heart into human patient

January 10, 2022 2:59 PM

Published January 10, 2022 2:20 PM

By CARLA K. JOHNSON
AP Medical Writer

U.S. doctors have transplanted a pig heart into a patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life — a first for medical science. Doctors at University of Maryland School of Medicine said Monday the patient is doing well three days after surgery. The patient is 57-year-old David Bennett, a Maryland handyman too sick to get a human heart. Bennett said before the surgery: “I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice.” Friday’s surgery showed for the first time that a gene-edited animal heart can function in the human body without immediate rejection.