Second pig heart transplant patient dies nearly six weeks after surgery

2023-11-22

In this photo taken in September 2023, Lawrence Faucette and his wife are in the hospital, waiting to receive an experimental pig heart transplant. Photo credit: Mark Teske/University of Maryland School of Medicine via AP

According to an obituary released by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the world's second patient to receive a pig heart transplant died nearly six weeks after the operation. The time of death was October 30, local time.

On September 20 this year, Lawrence Faucette, a patient who was dying of heart failure and was ineligible for a traditional heart transplant due to health reasons, finally received an experimental pig heart transplant from a team at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. In a previously released video, doctors said the pig heart worked normally in Fawcett's body for a month. But in recent days, his heart began to show the first signs of rejection. After rescue efforts, the patient died on Monday.

Fawcett is the second patient to undergo the procedure, with the previous patient, David Bennett, dying two months after the procedure. After learning lessons and improving the method, the research team started a second experiment on Fawcett. The leader of the research team said that they will continue to study pig organs and analyze what happened to Fawcett's heart. They hope to fully learn from this experience and provide hope for many patients in need of organ transplantation in the future.