In the USA, doctors transplanted the heart of a genetically modified pig into a person for the first time. This was done by doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center (USA). This is stated on Online university.
A unique operation was performed on 57-year-old David Bennett.
The operation lasted seven hours, and the American surgeons specifically appealed to the authorities for permission to carry it out. After all, such a case has not yet occurred in world medical practice.
Three days after the operation, the patient feels well.
"For me, the choice was between inevitable death and this transplant. I understand that my future fate is completely unknown, but for me this is the last chance," Bennett told reporters on the eve of the operation.
Note that if the results of the operation are successful, hundreds of thousands of people will get a chance for a new heart. The operation, about which it is still too early to claim that it is 100% successful, is an important step in the long-term study of the use of animal organs for life-saving transplants in humans.
In its statement, the University of Maryland quotes surgeon Bartla Griffith, who says the operation is designed to "bring closer to the resolution of the crisis with the shortage of donor organs."
According to the website OrganDonor.gov, about 100 people are waiting for donor organ transplants in the United States alone. человек, and 17 patients a day die because of their lack.
