Pig Heart Transplanted Into Human Body In US For The First Time Ever

Maryland: Transplanting human organs from one human body to another has become a known phenomenon in today's age of technological advancement. 

However, it may not be the case as far as transplanting animal organs to human body is concerned and it seems like a bizzare idea at first.

Doctors have transplanted a pig heart into a patient in a last ditched-effort to save his life in a hospital in Maryland in a one of its kind experiment.

The hospital informed that the patient is doing considerably well three days after the highly experimental and risky surgery.

Although it is too early to determine whether the operation was successful, but it certainly is a leap towards the decades-long quest to use animal organs for life-saving transplants in the future.

Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center have said that this transplant showed that a heart from a genetically modified animal can operate in the human body without immediate rejection.

The patient has been identified as David Bennett, a 57-year-old Maryland handyman. His son reportedly told that his father was very well aware of the risks that the transplant poses to his life and knew that there was no guarantee whatsoever.

The patient decided to go ahead with the transplant surgery as he was not eligible for a human heart transplant. He was dying and had no other option.

"It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it's a shot in the dark, but it's my last choice," David Benett said a day prior to the surgery, according to a statement provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

David was breathing on his own while still connected to a heart-lung machine to help his new heart on 10 January. 

The next few days will be of utmost significance as Benett recovers from the surgery. The doctors will also closely monitor the condition of his heart. 

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