Fawcett Laurence (Lawrence Faucette)

Fawcett Laurence (Lawrence Faucette)

Biography

2023: Death six weeks after pig heart transplant

At the end of October 2023, Laurence Fawcett, the world's second patient to receive a pig heart transplant, died. He died six weeks after undergoing transplant surgery.

Lawrence Fawcett first reached out to a medical center in Maryland on September 14, 2023. He entered the clinic with end-stage heart failure. Shortly before the operation, he had a cardiac arrest, which required emergency resuscitation. At that moment, doctors stated that it was impossible to carry out a traditional heart transplant due to the patient's serious condition. Therefore, having received permission from the US Food and Drug Administration, they decided on an experimental operation.

Medics transplanted the pig's heart first into the baboon's body and then into Fawcett's chest. After the operation, the man was not only able to survive, but also recovered: during the first month of recovery, he was intensively engaged in physiotherapy, worked on the return of the ability to walk, communicated with family members, including playing cards with his wife Ann. However, in recent days, his condition worsened, signs of rejection began to appear, and despite the efforts of doctors, Fawcett died. He was 58 years old.

Muhammad Mohiuddin, director of the University of Maryland Heart Xenotransplantation Program, said the researchers intend to conduct extensive analysis to identify factors that can be prevented in future transplants, the university's press service said at the end of October 2023.

The first person to have a pig heart transplanted was 57-year-old David Bennett Sr. The operation was also performed by doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The man died two months after the transplant, in March 2022.^[1]

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