Denied access to the human heart he needed to replace his own, failing, heart, David Bennett pursued his only option for staying alive. So, when offered the opportunity to volunteer in an experiment in January 2022, he accepted the highly experimental transplantation of a genetically manipulated pig heart. Make no mistake, this took a huge amount of courage.
A few things are known. This is what has been publicly shared. First, the pig heart functioned very well until shortly before Mr. Bennett's death. Then, it failed - it became abnormally thick and stiff. Second, typical human heart transplant rejection was not identified. Third, a pig (porcine) version of a virus called cytomegalovirus was detected in Mr. Bennett. This porcine cytomegalovirus has not previously been identified in a human. The significance of this finding is unknown. In other words, there not be any connection between this infection and the failure of Mr. Bennett's pig heart.
What comes next? It seems unlikely that the FDA will approve another clinical transplant with an organ from a pig, even a genetically manipulated pig, until some answers are identified. But, they aren't saying.
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