Lawrence Faucette, the second person to receive a transplanted heart from a pig, is working hard to recover one month after the highly experimental surgery.
He was suffering from heart failure and was ineligible for a traditional heart transplant due to other health issues.
The procedure, called xenotransplantation, is a significant development in organ transplantation. Pig organs have been genetically modified to make them more human-like, with the aim of addressing the shortage of human organ donations.
The first patient who received a pig heart survived for two months, and scientists are making improvements based on the lessons learned from that case.
Faucette’s recovery is being closely monitored, and his doctors have reported no signs of rejection for the pig heart.
This procedure could potentially save many lives by increasing the availability of organs for transplantation.
