Bennett David (David Bennett)

Bennett David (David Bennett)

Biography

2022

Death after heart transplant

In March 2022, the first patient with a transplanted genetically modified pig heart at the University of Maryland Medical Center died. The initial transplant operation was carried out in early 2022.

Patient David Bennett Sr. had severe heart disease at the age of 57, and the patient agreed to receive an experimental pig heart after being rejected from several waiting lists to receive a human heart. Hospital representatives said they could no longer comment on the cause of death, since doctors had not yet conducted a thorough examination due to the fact that it was unclear as of March 2022 whether the patient's body had rejected a foreign organ or other causes or diseases followed. On March 9, 2022, David Bennet's son released a statement thanking the hospital and staff for all the efforts that doctors had made for his father.

Dr. Bartley Griffith, the transplant surgeon, said hospital staff were devastated by the loss of Mr. Bennet, as the patient appeared to be a brave and noble patient who struggled to the end. Griffith added that Bennett became known to millions of people around the world for his courage and unwavering will to live.

Heart transplantation was one of a number of innovative procedures conducted in early 2022, during which the organs of genetically modified pigs were used to replace human organs. Scientists are trying to lead out pigs whose organs will not be rejected by the human body, and these studies have been gaining momentum since the beginning of 2012 thanks to updated gene editing and cloning technologies. This process, called xenotransplantation, gives hope to tens of thousands of patients with sick kidneys, hearts and other organs, since there is an acute shortage of human donor organs. Mr. Bennet's transplantation was initially found to be successful because the pig's heart was not immediately rejected and continued to function for more than two months, passing the critical threshold for a patient undergoing transplantation.^[1]

Gene-modified pig heart transplant

In January 2022, a genetically modified pig heart was successfully transplanted into a person for the first time. The operation was carried out by doctors at the University of Maryland, the patient was 57-year-old David Bennet, who suffered from incurable heart disease at the terminal stage.

The operation was carried out in the city of Baltimore and lasted eight hours. According to doctors, the patient is feeling good by January 10, 2022. It is still connected to the circulatory apparatus, but the transplanted organ already performs most of the work, and the first 48 hours after the operation passed without incident.

Genetically modified pig heart successfully transplanted into man for first time

Along with conventional anti-rejection drugs, which are designed to suppress the immune system and prevent the body from rejecting a foreign organ, scientists have also used an experimental drug from Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals.

Thanks to the gene modification of the pig, the hyperosteric reaction of heart rejection in David Bennett was avoided. The donor was an animal with a modification in ten genes: four genes were "turned off," including one that was responsible for heart growth (so that the organ did not begin to grow inside the patient), and six human genes were added so that the recipient's immune system better accepted the new heart. Nevertheless, it is not yet possible to say with confidence that this is a final success: there is a long period of observation of the patient who takes the drugs to prevent heart rejection.

According to The New York Times, in 2021, more than 41 thousand Americans underwent organ transplantation, but an acute shortage of donor organs persists, and about ten people die every day who did not wait for their turn for a transplant. Scientists hope that in the future, organ transplantation operations from genetically modified animals will save many lives: in the United States alone, more than half a million people need donor organs.^[2]

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