By MADDIE KIRKMAN
Staff Writer
The University of Maryland Medical Center has successfully transplanted a genetically altered pig heart into a man named David Bennett, 57. Bennett had advanced heart failure and a type of arrhythmia that is called ventricular fibrillation. He was not taking the responsible steps to control his high blood pressure including other health problems he had which led physicians to be unable to give him a human heart transplant. Muhammad Mohiuddin, the director of the cardiac xenotransplantation program at UMSOM stated, “A human organ is considered a very precious thing. The main concern was whether to give the heart to a person who may not be able to take care of it.” Instead of doing a regular human heart transplant, the UMSOM team got consent from Bennett and authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to be able to genetically modify a pig heart to give to Bennett. The surgeons are still unsure how long Bennett’s new heart will function. Researchers are hoping that this new technique will succeed and can make up for the shortage of human organs for patients in need. This process was extremely risky and could have led the heart to reject in his body or caused immediate death.