A 57-year-old male patient who made history after receiving the world’s first pig heart transplant has now passed away, just two months later.
According to local media outlets, the patient was identified as a former convict named David Bennett who hailed from Marland.
He reportedly passed away on Tuesday at the University Of Maryland’s Medical Center.
While the cause of his death is yet to be revealed publicly, doctors did inform reporters how the patent’s medical health had reportedly deteriorated to a great extent in the past few days.
Bennet receiving a pig’s heart transplant was the first genetically engineered experiment of its kind, confirmed reports.
While doctors remained hopeful about his condition at first, they continued to pray for his good health adding how anything was possible and how they would be following up with his progress over the days.
The groundbreaking transplant made use of a heart from a pig after being genetically modified in a way that allowed it to become compatible with humans. This way, the body was prevented from accepting it as a foreign body, allowing it to work as a normal heart would.
The deceased patient’s son had praised the hospital for their relentless efforts at offering a last-minute solution to help save his father whose heart had suddenly stopped working.
Moreover, they were hopeful that such experiments and research would help to put an end to the organ shortage problem that affected so many patients waiting in long lines for organ transplants.
Meanwhile, the doctors who operated on Bennett praised him for being so brave throughout the procedure. But little did they know that he wouldn’t be able to live more than two months after the procedure.
They recently released a statement revealing how heartbroken they were to learn about the news while recalling Bennett as a noble individual who fought until the end.