A Pig Heart Has Been Transplanted Into a Human, Would You Have it Done?

A human in the United States has just had a successful transplant of a pig heart, would you have it done if it was a matter of life or death?

The first thing you have to know is the pig was genetically modified so that the heart could function properly in a human.

So it's not like Farmer Brown just gave Petunia to a hospital and they said, "hey this pig heart could be put in this 57-year-old man."

The firm that developed the pig, Revivicor, modified 10 genes in the pig so the pig's heart would continue to grow after the transplant.

The procedure is called xenotransplantation and has saved the lives of thousands of people that would have otherwise died waiting for an organ transplant.

Researchers have been figuring out a way for years how to modify animals so their organs would cause less of an immune reaction and they have seen success in other primates, so now it is so far showing success in a human.

David Bennett is the 57-year-old man's name and he was approved to have the procedure because he was too sick to go on the waiting list for a human heart.

He had the procedure done on January 7, 2022, and so far he is still on a heart-lung bypass machine, but doctors report that the heart is doing the majority of the work and he could be taken off the machine by this coming Tuesday.

So we will see if everything goes great beginning on Tuesday. I don't know about you but if it was life or death, I would give it a go.