Second person to receive pig heart transplant dies almost six weeks after surgery

Lawrence Faucette, a 58-year-old resident of Frederick, Maryland, a 20-year Navy veteran who worked as a laboratory technician at the National Institutes of Health, was the second person to receive an experimental xenotransplantation procedure; pig heart transplant.

This method was done as a last resort for Faucette, who He was suffering from terminal heart disease and his medical condition left him with no viable options for a conventional human heart transplant.

faucet died six weeks after the experimental procedurethe University of Maryland UMMC Medical Center, where the surgery was performed, noted that the heart began to show signs of rejection in recent days.

Bartley Griffith, clinical director of the Xenotransplant Program of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and who was in charge of performing the surgeryexpressed through a statement that;

“Mr. Faucette’s dying wish was that we make the most of what we have learned from our experience, so that others can be guaranteed the opportunity for a new heart when a human organ is not available. Then he told the team of doctors and nurses he gathered around him that he loved us. “We will miss him very much.”

Faucette, entered the Faculty of Medicine hospital on September 14, after having symptoms of heart failure, and underwent the experimental transplant six days latertaking the last hope he had of staying alive.

After the transplant, the doctors in charge of following up on your case, They reported that they were making significant progress, in addition to participating in physical therapy and spending time with his family. One month after the operation, it was determined that their cardiac function was excellent and supportive medications were withdrawn.

“There is no evidence of infection or rejection at this time,” Griffith said at the time.

After Faucette’s death, doctors expressed that organ rejection is “the most important problem of traditional human organ transplants.

Faucette’s wife Ann thanked all the doctors and staff at the University for the support provided to her husband.

“Larry began this journey with an open mind and complete trust in Dr. Griffith and her staff. “He knew that his time with us was short and that this was his last chance to do something for others,” he stated.

In January 2022, the University of Maryland also performed the first experimental operation of this type on David Bennett, 57, who died two months after the intervention. Although there were no signs of rejection in the first weeks after the transplant, the autopsy concluded that Bennett ultimately died of heart failure due to “a complex set of factors,” including the condition he was in before the operation. A case study published in the academic journal The Lancet also noted that there was evidence of the presence of a previously unidentified swine virus.

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