"Dad Changing Future", Says Son After Man's Pig-Heart Transplant
NDTV
"This is significant for my dad, for the United States, for the world," David Bennett Jr., the patient's son, said on Thursday.
The son of a transplant recipient who was implanted with a genetically modified pig heart in a first-of-its-kind surgery, called his father's procedure "a miracle."
The surgery, performed by a team at the University of Maryland Medicine on January 7, is among the first to demonstrate the feasibility of a pig-to-human heart transplant, a field made possible by new gene editing tools.
If proven successful, scientists hope pig organs could help alleviate shortages of donor organs. For 57-year-old David Bennett of Maryland, the heart transplant was his last option.
"This is significant for my dad, for the United States, for the world," David Bennett Jr., the patient's son, said on Thursday. "This is groundbreaking, this is remarkable and frankly, this is a miracle."
