Death of 1st patient with pig heart will force scientists to re-think future of animal-to-human transplants, expert says
AFTER the first patient with a pig heart died this week, the future of animal-to-human transplants may soon change forever.
Despite David Bennett Sr’s passing, the surgery was considered a success by the doctors who preformed the groundbreaking procedure – and a medical expert who spoke to The Sun.
Bennett Sr, who was diagnosed with a terminal heart disease, died Tuesday at the age of 57 after receiving a genetically modified pig heart on January 7.
This was the first surgery of its kind, and it was performed by Doctors Bartley Griffith and Muhammad Mohiuddin at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Death will always be tragic and his family is grieving, but they said in a statement the doctors’ “miraculous effort” gave their family “precious weeks together.”
“Their exhaustive efforts and energy, paired with my dad’s insatiable will to live, created a hopeful environment during an uphill climb,” David Bennett Jr said.
“We hope this story can be the beginning of hope and not the end.
“We also hope that what was learned from his surgery will benefit future patients and hopefully one day, end the organ shortage that costs so many lives each year.”
That hope might be a reality, according to Chris Denning, a professor of stem cell biology at the University of Nottingham in England, who said the procedure was scientifically “a success.”
“This is the first time ever that this has been attempted,” Denning said. “Most of the genetic engineering involved in these pigs was to overcome the immune response humans would naturally mount against a pig organ.
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“Without any modification, the pig heart would have been rejected within minutes by a response known as hyperacute rejection,” Denning explained.
“If that hurdle is overcome, then secondary immune responses will cause rejection in the coming days, weeks or months.
“The fact that these early reports indicate that the was no overt immune rejection is positive for the medical research question that was being asked.”
The doctors who performed the surgery weren’t available for one-on-one interviews, but they spoke about the procedure in videos released on March 9.
“It’s a collective plus for the field,” Griffith said in a video statement.
“I think we’ve opened some eyes, and I think our own eyes have been opened and we’ve learned a ton ourselves. And we’ll learn more from examination of tissues and further evaluation of the samples that David gave us.
“And maybe the next one will be a little different, we’ll do things a little differently and maybe we’ll have a little better outcome. Maybe we’ll get to a point down the road of making this a practicality with on demand organs.”
Dr Griffith didn’t go into specifics about what could or will be done differently, and the university couldn’t comment on potential extenuating circumstances that might’ve led to Bennett Sr’s death.
“We cannot comment further on the cause of the patient’s death until his physicians conduct a thorough review that they plan to publish in a scientific peer-reviewed journal,” the University of Maryland Medical System said in an emailed statement.
“But there was no obvious cause identified at the time of his death.”
That’s vital, according to Denning, who said the future of having on-hand organs will depend on the conclusion of that review.
“It depends on what the reasons for the failure were,” he said.
“Assuming that immune rejection was not the cause of the patient’s decline, it may be that he was simply too frail and no treatment – even a human heart transplant – could have saved him.
“At the other end of the spectrum, it is possible that a pig heart is simply not compatible with humans.”
That’s mostly because of the anatomy differences between humans and pigs.
Denning said the human heart has to work hard to counter gravity to pump blood because humans stand upright; whereas blood flows horizontal in pigs.
“That means the pig heart might simply not be strong enough to cope with the human circulation and so started to fail over time,” he said.
“DIE OR DO THE TRANSPLANT”
In a statement obtained by The Associated Press a day before the January surgery, Bennett said 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.”
The experimental surgery was performed as there’s is an ongoing organ shortage crisis.
His son told the news outlet his dad was ineligible for a human heart transplant, and this was his only option for a chance at living – despite it not being guaranteed to help.
IS IT ETHICAL TO HARVEST PIG ORGANS?
The FDA green-lighted the surgery under a “compassionate use” emergency authorization, as Bennett’s condition was life-threatening and no other options could help save him.
The “successful” surgery could serve as a foundation for pig-to-human organ donations, but the ethics of harvesting pig organs should be reexamined, Denning told The Sun.
“This was deemed acceptable during consultations in the 1990s, but this is something that should be revisited in the 2020s,” he said.
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