NEW YORK – In a landmark achievement in medical science, a Pakistani-born doctor working at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Mohiuddin transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into a patient with a terminal illness.
With the first of its kind of transplant, the patient David Bennett, 57, has become the first person in the world to get a heart transplant from a domestic porker.
Former Karachi citizen Dr. Mansoor Mohiuddin, who is a graduate of Dow University of Health Sciences, has spent the past 3 decades trying to figure out how to save terminal patients in need of a heart transplant.
Speaking with a local news outlet, the US-based cardiac surgeon said, the heart of a chimpanzee was implanted in a previous attempt, however, the patient did not survive.
He said the team examined a number of animals to see which species was closest to the human being. Commenting on the cost of a historic transplant, Mansoor said that the cost is high at the moment but the patient is doing well three days after the seven-hour procedure.
The pig-to-human heart transplant was considered the last hope of saving the US citizen, and the chances were unclear before the procedure. With the feat in medical science, it is said to be one step closer to solving the organ shortage crisis.
Last year, US surgeons revealed that they had successfully transplanted a pig’s kidney into a person with the most advanced experiment in the field so far.
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Reports in international media said the pig’s heart used in the transplant was genetically modified to cut out several genes that would have led to the organ being rejected by the human body.
In the following years, a number of effective immunosuppressant drugs and gene editing tools, which have helped narrow the genetic difference between a pig and human organs, have raised hopes.
