That’ll Do, Pig. That’ll Do.

🐷❤️ In a first-of-its-kind surgery, doctors at the University of Maryland announced the successful transplant of a genetically modified pig heart into a human this week.

• 57-year-old Dave Bennett, who doctors said was too ill to qualify for a regular human heart, remains in stable condition four days after the procedure and is being weaned off a respiratory machine.
• ​​The donor heart came from a one-year-old pig that had been genetically modified to decrease the likelihood the patient's body would reject it.
• Doctors expressed caution when discussing Bennet's long-term health because "it's never been done before."
• But – "It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice," Bennett told Maryland's School of Medicine before the operation.
• This week's milestone follows a breakthrough surgery last year in which a pig's kidney was successfully transplanted to a human host, though the patient was brain-dead at the time.

+Not-so-fun fact: An average of 17 Americans die every day while waiting for an organ transplant.

+Explore: Three ethical issues surrounding pig heart transplants.