At first it was David Bennett, the first human being to live, for two months, with a genetically altered pig heart in his chest and died in March of last year. This Tuesday, Lawrence Faucette, 58, died after receiving a transplant with similar characteristics on September 20. Both suffered from a terminal heart condition and both put themselves in the hands of the University of Maryland Medical Center, in Baltimore.
It was the hospital that spread the news that Faucette, an official until his retirement from the National Institute of Health (NIH), He had not passed the test. In the six weeks that followed the operation, significant progress was made, according to a statement released by the institution. He received physical therapy treatment, was able to spend time with his family and even “played cards with his wife, Ann.” In the last days, his heart began to show rejection and on October 30 he died.
“We are saddened by the loss of Mr. Faucette, an extraordinary patient, scientist, Navy veteran and family man who just wanted to spend a little more time with his beloved wife and family,” wrote Bartley P. Griffith, the surgeon in charge. of the innovative operation. “He expressed one last wish: that we make the most of what we learned from his experience, so that others can be guaranteed the opportunity to have a new heart when a human organ is not available. He had time to tell the team of doctors and nurses gathered around him that he loved us. “We will miss him very much.”
His wife, Ann, explained in farewell that her husband “began this journey with an open mind and complete trust in Dr. Griffith and his staff. He knew that his time with us was short and this was his last chance to do something for others. He never imagined that he would survive this long or provide so much data to the xenotransplantation program. He was always thinking about others.”
The future of xenotransplants
It’s still early to know what went wrong in Faucette’s case. In Bennett’s, who made history by becoming the first human being to receive the viscera of a pig genetically modified by the Revivicor company to prevent the foreign heart from growing and to facilitate the fit of the organ in the human body and avoid rejection. , it was concluded that it was the antibodies produced by his immune system that played tricks on him. The heart also had traces of porcine cytomegalovirus, a latent virus that affects pigs, which may have contributed to the transplant complications.
The University of Maryland Medical Center committed this Tuesday to “conduct an extensive analysis [en el caso de Faucette] to identify negative factors that can be prevented in future interventions.”
In 2021, 42,887 organ transplants were performed in the United States, which was an increase of 3.7% compared to 2021, as well as a new annual record, according to data from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). A total of 3,817 were from the heart.
The official list of people waiting for a transplant in the country is 100,000 patients. Every 10 minutes one is added to the list and 17 die each day while waiting their turn, according to the Health Resources & Services Administration (Health Resources and Services Administration). Kidneys top the list of the most in-demand organs: 85% of patients need a kidney transplant. The heart is in third place, behind the liver.
Xenotransplantation – the transfer of cells, tissues and organs from an animal to a human being – is a highly experimental medical field that seeks to solve the problem of the shortage of human organs. In this, the company Revivicor, based in Blackburn (Virginia), is at the forefront. It was founded in 2003 as a continuation of the British company PPL Therapeutics, responsible for the creation of sheep in 1996. Dollythe first mammal cloned from an adult cell.
Most of the work related to xenotransplantation has so far focused on pig kidneys.
Both Faucette and Bennett were too sick to receive traditional transplants. They had almost nothing to lose and everything to gain. The surgeons who treated them trust that their experience can now be used to advance medicine.
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