A man, David Bennett, said to have been dying from terminal heart failure, has become the first patient in the world to get a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig.
David Bennett underwent the nine-hour experimental procedure at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore on Saturday.
Surgeons used a heart taken from a pig that had undergone gene-editing to make it less likely that his body’s immune system would reject the organ.
The 57-year-old patient is breathing on his own while still connected to a machine that helps his new heart pump blood around his body.
Experts say it is too soon to know if his body will fully accept the organ and that the next few weeks will be critical as he is weaned off the machine.
But, if successful, it would mark a medical breakthrough and could save thousands of lives in the US alone each year.
Doctors called the procedure a ‘watershed event.’
Mr Bennett, a labourer, knew there was no guarantee the risky operation would work but was too sick to qualify for a human organ.
