ANNAPOLIS – David Bennett, the first person to receive a genetically modified heart pig, has succumbed to surgical complications nearly two months after the first-ever operation.
Surgeons of Maryland hospital announced the news today saying who had terminal heart disease only survived for two months.
David Bennett, 57, was the first person to have his failing heart replaced with a pig in an operation that made headlines and was dubbed as groundbreaking in the medical field.
Reports in the international media suggest that the deceased agreed to receive the modified pig’s heart after he was rejected from several waiting lists to receive a human heart. The man passed away days after his condition began to deteriorate.
Meanwhile, it is yet to be identified whether his body rejected the organ of a four-legged omnivore as there was no obvious cause identified at the time of his death.
Surgeons will conduct a thorough examination of the body as results in a peer-reviewed are likely to be made public in a medical journal.
The man went under knife back in January this year, while he spent some time with his family, watched TV serials.
Pakistan-born US doctor makes history by transplanting pig heart into human
Previously, the historic surgical procedure was said to be groundbreaking as medical professionals are aimed to solve the organ shortage dilemma. Pigs have been used in medicine, however, transplanting whole organs is said to be more complex than using highly processed tissue.
Last year, US surgeons revealed that they had successfully transplanted a pig’s kidney into a person however, the person implanted the renal organ was brain dead with no hope of recovery.
