WASHINGTON. In a groundbreaking medical intervention, a team of surgeons has conducted a pig heart transplant on a dying man, marking only the second time such a procedure has been attempted. Just two days after the operation, the patient showed remarkable signs of improvement, cracking jokes and even sitting in a chair, according to medical professionals at the University of Maryland Medicine.
The 58-year-old Navy veteran was facing the grim prospect of imminent death due to heart failure, but his complex medical history made him ineligible for a conventional human heart transplant, as explained by doctors from the University of Maryland Medicine.
In a video recorded by the hospital before the surgery on Wednesday, Lawrence Faucette, hailing from Frederick, Maryland, expressed his newfound hope, saying, “Nobody knows from this point forward. At least now I have hope and I have a chance. I will fight tooth and nail for every breath I can take.”
Dr. Bartley Griffith, the lead surgeon who performed the remarkable transplant, expressed both the privilege and the immense pressure involved in this groundbreaking procedure. “You know, I just keep shaking my head – how am I talking to someone who has a pig heart?” he told The Associated Press.
This isn’t the first time this team from Maryland has ventured into this pioneering medical frontier. Last year, they made history by conducting the world’s first-ever transplant of a genetically modified pig heart into another critically ill patient, David Bennett, who managed to survive for just two months.
With a severe shortage of human organs available for transplantation, the demand far outstrips the supply. In the United States alone, there were slightly over 4,100 heart transplants performed last year, setting a record, but the limited availability means that only patients with the highest likelihood of long-term survival are offered this option.
Past attempts at animal-to-human organ transplants have failed for decades due to the rapid rejection of foreign tissues by the human immune system. However, scientists are revisiting this approach using pigs genetically modified to make their organs more compatible with the human body.
Recently, researchers at various medical institutions have explored the transplantation of pig kidneys and hearts into human bodies donated for research, with the aim of gathering data to support more extensive xenotransplantation studies.
In the case of Lawrence Faucette, the Maryland researchers sought special permission from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to proceed with this experimental procedure, invoking a process reserved for emergency situations when no other options are available. Their request, accompanied by over 300 pages of documentation, was granted based on the knowledge gained from their previous attempt, despite the unfortunate outcome of that earlier case.
Faucette, a retired lab technician from the National Institutes of Health, also had to provide informed consent, acknowledging the risks associated with the procedure.
In a statement, Faucette’s wife, Ann Faucette, expressed their humble expectations, saying, “We have no expectations other than hoping for more time together. That could be as simple as sitting on the front porch and having coffee together.”
This time around, several factors differ from the first attempt. Scientists have identified a pig virus in the heart during post-transplant analysis, leading to improved testing methods for detecting hidden viruses. Additionally, medication adjustments were made to enhance the chances of success.
By Friday, Faucette’s newly transplanted pig heart was functioning effectively without any external support devices, according to the hospital.
Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, the xenotransplantation expert on the Maryland team, expressed amazement at witnessing the pig heart function within a human body but cautioned against making premature predictions, stating, “We don’t want to predict anything. We will take every day as a victory and move forward.”
While single-patient “compassionate use” cases like this offer insights into the viability of pig organs for transplantation, they provide limited information compared to more formal testing. Karen Maschke, a research scholar at the Hastings Center specializing in ethics and policy for xenotransplant clinical trials, noted that the FDA’s approval of this second case suggests that the agency may not yet be ready to permit full-fledged pig heart clinical trials to commence.
The pig heart used in this procedure, provided by Revivicor, a company based in Blacksburg, Virginia, boasts 10 genetic modifications, which include disabling certain pig genes and incorporating some human genes to enhance compatibility with the human immune system.
