Man Who Received Pig Heart Transplant Allegedly Dies of Swine Virus

WASHINGTON DC, KOMPAS.com – A 57 year old patient who is famous for surviving two months after undergoing transplant heart babi died because of virus pigs, according to his transplant surgeon.

In January, David Bennett, a man suffering from heart failure, underwent experimental surgery at the University of Maryland medical center. There, doctors performed a genetically modified pig heart transplant procedure to save him.

Read also: First Pig Heart Transplant Patient Dies After 2 Months

Shortly after undergoing surgery, Bennett died last March. The hospital only said his condition had worsened over the course of a few days but did not give an exact cause of death.

Reported from Guardian on Friday (6/5/2022) Bennett’s transplant surgeon, Bartley Griffith, later revealed that the pig’s heart was infected with a swine virus known as porcine cytomegalovirus, which may have caused Bennett’s death.

In a webinar hosted by the American Society of Transplantation on April 20, Griffith described the virus and doctors’ efforts to treat it, the MIT Technology Review first reported Wednesday (4/5/2022).

“We’re starting to study why he died,” said Griffith, adding, “(the virus) may have been the cause, or it could have been a factor, that triggered all of this.”

According to experts, transplant is “the ultimate test xenotransplantasi,” a process involving tissue transfer between different species.

They believe that the experiment may have been interrupted as a result of “accidental error”, as pigs bred to provide organs should be free of the virus.

“If this is an infection, we might be able to prevent it in the future,” Griffith said during the webinar.

Read also: German Researchers Will Breed Special Pigs for Human Organ Transplant

The biggest challenge of transplant

The biggest challenge in animal-to-human organ transplantation is the resilience of the human immune system, as it can attack foreign cells in the rejection process, and trigger a response that will eventually destroy the transplanted organ or tissue.

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