On November 1, the University of Maryland Medical Center announced that the second person in the world to receive a pig heart transplant has passed away.
The patient was Lawrence Faucette, a 58-year-old veteran and retired laboratory technician. He underwent the transplant on September 20, showed signs of organ rejection the previous week, and passed away on October 30. Organ rejection is a phenomenon where the immune system of the transplant recipient attacks and destroys the transplanted organ or tissue.
Prior to this, Faucette’s health was progressing well after the transplant; he was able to walk and even had enough strength to play cards with his wife, according to a representative from the medical center.
Faucette was treated with an experimental antibody therapy to suppress his immune system and prevent rejection. However, rejection remains the “greatest challenge of traditional organ transplants”, according to physicians.
In his final weeks, Faucette grew close to his surgical team. His surgeon, Dr. Bartley P. Griffith, stated that Faucette was aware of how significant the surgery was for future medical advancements.
His ultimate wish was to help doctors maximize what they could learn from his experience to aid other patients in their recovery.
Faucette was first admitted to the hospital on September 14, in the end stages of heart failure, requiring resuscitation. The next day, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved xenotransplantation as a last resort due to underlying health issues that prevented him from undergoing a traditional heart transplant.
Lawrence Faucette with his wife, Ann, after the surgery. (Photo: AP).
“He knew that our time together was very short. This was his last chance to do something for others. He never imagined he would survive this long or be able to provide so much data for the xenotransplant program,” his wife, Ann Faucette, said.
The pig heart transplanted into Faucette had undergone genetic modifications, along with the addition of human genes to prevent rejection. Last year, the University of Maryland Medical Center completed the world’s first pig heart transplant for patient David Bennett, 57, who survived for two months with the new organ before passing away due to a pig virus infection.
According to surgeon Muhammad Mohiuddin, who was directly involved in the surgical team, the hospital plans extensive analysis for patient Bennett to identify factors that could be prevented in future transplants. This will allow experts to gain more knowledge and experience in the field of xenotransplantation.
Recently, NYU Langone Health successfully transplanted a pig kidney into a brain-dead patient through a similar gene-editing process.
