WASHINGTON — It’s been a month since a Maryland man became the second person to receive a transplanted heart from a pig –- and hospital video released Friday shows he’s working hard to recuperate.
Lawrence Faucette was dying from heart failure and ineligible for a standard heart transplant due to other health problems when doctors on the University of Maryland School of Medicine offered the highly experimental surgery.
In the primary glimpse of Faucette provided for the reason that Sept. 20 transplant, hospital video shows physical therapist Chris Wells urging him to smile while pushing through a pedaling exercise to regain his strength.
“That’s going to be tough but I’ll work it out,” Faucette, 58, replied, respiratory heavily but giving a smile.
The Maryland team last yr performed the world’s first transplant of a heart from a genetically altered pig into one other dying man. David Bennett survived just two months before that heart failed, for reasons that aren’t completely clear although signs of a pig virus later were found contained in the organ. Lessons from that first experiment led to changes before this second try, including higher virus testing.
Attempts at animal-to-human organ transplants — called xenotransplants — have failed for a long time, as people’s immune systems immediately destroyed the foreign tissue. Now scientists try again using pigs genetically modified to make their organs more humanlike.
In Friday’s hospital video, Faucette’s doctors said the pig heart has shown no sign of rejection.
“His heart is doing the whole lot by itself,” said Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, the Maryland team’s cardiac xenotransplantation chief.
A hospital spokeswoman said Faucette, of Frederick, Maryland, has been in a position to stand and physical therapists are helping him gain strength needed to aim walking.
Many scientists hope xenotransplants in the future could compensate for the massive shortage of human organ donations. Greater than 100,000 persons are on the nation’s list for a transplant, most awaiting kidneys, and hundreds will die waiting.
A handful of scientific teams have tested pig kidneys and hearts in monkeys and in donated human bodies, hoping to learn enough for the Food and Drug Administration to permit formal xenotransplant studies.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely accountable for all content.
WASHINGTON — It’s been a month since a Maryland man became the second person to receive a transplanted heart from a pig –- and hospital video released Friday shows he’s working hard to recuperate.
Lawrence Faucette was dying from heart failure and ineligible for a standard heart transplant due to other health problems when doctors on the University of Maryland School of Medicine offered the highly experimental surgery.
In the primary glimpse of Faucette provided for the reason that Sept. 20 transplant, hospital video shows physical therapist Chris Wells urging him to smile while pushing through a pedaling exercise to regain his strength.
“That’s going to be tough but I’ll work it out,” Faucette, 58, replied, respiratory heavily but giving a smile.
The Maryland team last yr performed the world’s first transplant of a heart from a genetically altered pig into one other dying man. David Bennett survived just two months before that heart failed, for reasons that aren’t completely clear although signs of a pig virus later were found contained in the organ. Lessons from that first experiment led to changes before this second try, including higher virus testing.
Attempts at animal-to-human organ transplants — called xenotransplants — have failed for a long time, as people’s immune systems immediately destroyed the foreign tissue. Now scientists try again using pigs genetically modified to make their organs more humanlike.
In Friday’s hospital video, Faucette’s doctors said the pig heart has shown no sign of rejection.
“His heart is doing the whole lot by itself,” said Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, the Maryland team’s cardiac xenotransplantation chief.
A hospital spokeswoman said Faucette, of Frederick, Maryland, has been in a position to stand and physical therapists are helping him gain strength needed to aim walking.
Many scientists hope xenotransplants in the future could compensate for the massive shortage of human organ donations. Greater than 100,000 persons are on the nation’s list for a transplant, most awaiting kidneys, and hundreds will die waiting.
A handful of scientific teams have tested pig kidneys and hearts in monkeys and in donated human bodies, hoping to learn enough for the Food and Drug Administration to permit formal xenotransplant studies.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely accountable for all content.
