A 57-year-old man, who had received a genetically modified pig heart in an experimental heart surgery in January, died of a pig virus, his transplant surgeon said recently.
David Bennett, a handyman, underwent the highly experimental surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center after he suffered heart failure. In a last-ditch effort to save his life, surgeons at the Maryland hospital transplanted a genetically modified pig’s heart into him in a landmark xenotransplantation operation.
Bennett was aware that there was no guarantee that the experiment would work. As he was dying and was ineligible for a human heart transplant, he had no other option, his son had told The Associated Press in January.
Bennett died in March shortly after the surgery. However, the hospital had then said his condition deteriorated over the span of a few days after the surgery without providing an exact cause of death.
In an online webinar by the American Society of Transplantation in April, Bennett’s transplant surgeon Bartley Griffith said the pig’s heart was infected with a porcine virus known as porcine cytomegalovirus, which may have lead to Bennett’s death, MIT Technology Review reported.
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“We are beginning to learn why he passed on,” said Griffith, adding, “
According to Griffith, the patient was sitting up in bed a few days after his heart transplant. His heart was functioning well and performing like a “rock star”, Griffith had said.
However, later his condition deteriorated due to the presence of the pig virus, which doesn’t infect human cells but can damage the organ.
Some experts are, however, hesitant in fully attributing Bennett’s death to the pig virus.
“Maybe the virus contributed but it was not the sole reason,” The Guardian quoted Joachim Denner, a researcher at Free University of Berlin’s Institute of Virology, as saying.
If Bennett’s death is caused only by the virus and not because his body rejected the organ, experts working on xenotransplantation will not have to rethink their overall strategy. If it is only an infection, it can be prevented in the future, Griffith said.
First Published: May 7, 2022 6:19 PM IST
