WASHINGTON (AP) — The second person to receive a transplanted heart from a pig has died, nearly six weeks after the highly experimental surgery, his Maryland doctors announced Tuesday.
Lawrence Faucette, 58, was dying from heart failure and ineligible for a traditional heart transplant when he received the genetically modified pig heart on Sept. 20.
According to the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the heart had seemed healthy for the first month but began showing signs of rejection in recent days.
The Maryland team last year performed the world’s first transplant of a heart from a genetically altered pig into another dying man.
David Bennett survived two months before that heart failed, for reasons that aren’t completely clear although signs of a pig virus later were found inside the organ.
Persons:
Lawrence Faucette, Faucette, Faucette’s, Ann, “, David Bennett, Faucette's, ” Dr, Bartley Griffith, —
Organizations:
WASHINGTON, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Maryland, Navy, Food and Drug Administration, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science, Educational Media Group, AP
Locations:
Maryland, Frederick , Maryland