Maryland Man Becomes First To Ever Receive Genetically Modified Pig Heart

“Conspiracy theories” come true if you just wait long enough.

A 57-year-old from Maryland has become the first human ever to receive a heart transplant from a pig.

The surgery took place at the University of Maryland Medical Center and the man who received the pig’s heart was identified as David Bennett Sr.

In total the surgery took close to 8 hours and as of now Bennet is in stable conditions but being he’s the first man ever to receive a genetically modified heart from a pig, doctors are keeping a close eye on him.

For the first time, surgeons have successfully transplanted a genetically altered pig’s heart into a patient. The procedure may bring new hope to hundreds of thousands of people with organ failure. https://t.co/C660M8uvGy

— NYT Science (@NYTScience) January 10, 2022

US surgeons transplant a PIG heart into a human in world first: Dying man ineligible for a human organ is 'doing well' https://t.co/jkdGyeUUpW

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) January 10, 2022

The New York Times has more on the story:

A 57-year-old man with life-threatening heart disease has received a heart from a genetically modified pig, a groundbreaking procedure that offers hope to hundreds of thousands of patients with failing organs.

It is the first successful transplant of a pig’s heart into a human being. The eight-hour operation took place in Baltimore on Friday, and the patient, David Bennett Sr. of Maryland, was doing well on Monday, according to surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

“It creates the pulse, it creates the pressure, it is his heart,” said Dr. Bartley Griffith, the director of the cardiac transplant program at the medical center, who performed the operation.

“It’s working and it looks normal. We are thrilled, but we don’t know what tomorrow will bring us. This has never been done before.”

Scientists have worked feverishly to develop pigs whose organs would not be rejected by the human body, research accelerated in the past decade by new gene editing and cloning technologies. The heart transplant comes just months after surgeons in New York successfully attached the kidney of a genetically engineered pig to a brain-dead person.

Breaking News: A man received a new heart from a genetically modified pig, a medical first that offers hope to hundreds of thousands of patients with failing organs. https://t.co/CMQEPN9IL9 pic.twitter.com/wSYwFwmqV9

— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 10, 2022

The Daily Mail got the scoop too:

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In a medical first, doctors transplanted a pig heart into a patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life and three days later, David Bennett, 57, is said to be recovering and doing well after the nine-hour procedure.

While it´s too soon to know if the operation really will work, it marks a step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants.

Bennett is breathing on his own without a ventilator, but is still using a Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine that helps pump blood throughout his body. Doctors hope to wean him off the device slowly.

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

And this medical first could one day help solve the chronic shortage of organ donations.

Alex Jones the host of InfoWars predicted these types of scientist experiments were going on two decades ago but when he made the declaration people shrugged it off as a conspiracy theory.