The first pig-to-human heart transplant has happened. Yes, you read that right! Dave Bennett, 57, who lives in Maryland, agreed to be the first to risk the heart transplant experimental surgery, with the hopes of going home to his beloved dog, Luck.
“This is nothing short of a miracle,” his son David said Sunday, two days after his surgery. “That’s what my dad needed, and that’s what I feel like he got.”
“He knew that this was his best option,” Bennett’s son David said
“He’s a fighter and has a desire to live,” said David
The doctors, after nine hours, were able to replace Bennett’s heart with a 1-year-old, 240-pound pig gene-edited and bred specifically for this purpose.
With more than 100,000 people sitting on the organ transplant waitlist, scientists have been working for decades trying to figure out how to save human lives with animal organs.
“This is a truly remarkable breakthrough,” Robert Montgomery, a transplant surgeon at NYU Langone and a heart transplant patient himself. “I am thrilled by this news and the hope it gives to my family and other patients who will eventually be saved by this breakthrough.”
