Pig Heart Transplant
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Long and fascinating article about this transplant, and also a long look at the history of organ transplantation.
The article mentions the team at Duke, perhaps @jon-nyc knows some of these people.
By the way, the heart surgeons I used to work with (we didn't do transplants at our place - no infrastructure support), all said that the surgery is technically pretty simple. You're sewing big things to big things, after all - not like coronary bypass.
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Weird that you posted about this today. I just read that the guy died.
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Weird that you posted about this today. I just read that the guy died.
@taiwan_girl said in Heart Transplant:
Weird that you posted about this today. I just read that the guy died.
Yep, I saw that too.
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The transplant patient died.
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The transplant patient died.
do the dark humor jokes go here or in the designated thread?I'm sorry to hear that.
It was brave that he decided to be a guinea pig. -
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The transplant raised ethical concerns among animal rights activists, who believe animals should not be sacrificed for human benefit, and among some who objected to Bennett, who had served time in prison for attacking a man with a knife, receiving a life-extending procedure.
Well, there’s two groups of people who can go fuck themselves.
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The transplant raised ethical concerns among animal rights activists, who believe animals should not be sacrificed for human benefit, and among some who objected to Bennett, who had served time in prison for attacking a man with a knife, receiving a life-extending procedure.
Well, there’s two groups of people who can go fuck themselves.
@jon-nyc said in Heart Transplant:
The transplant raised ethical concerns among animal rights activists, who believe animals should not be sacrificed for human benefit, and among some who objected to Bennett, who had served time in prison for attacking a man with a knife, receiving a life-extending procedure.
Well, there’s two groups of people who can go fuck themselves.
Couldn't agree more.
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Pig virus may have been one factor in historic pig heart transplant patient's death
The death of David Bennett Sr., who received a pig heart in place of his own, may have been hastened by another thing he got from the pig: a common virus.
In Bennett's weakened state, the virus called pig cytomegalovirus or CMV might have been one of several factors that contributed to his eventual demise, according to Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, who co-led the University of Maryland Medicine team, that performed the Jan. 7 transplant.
Bennett died two months after receiving the pig heart, which itself was a last-ditch effort to save his life.
An autopsy after Bennett's death suggested that while the pig heart had been pumping well, scar tissue was building up in the organ, thickening it and preventing it from fully relaxing after pushing through the blood.
Examination also revealed the presence of pig cytomegalovirus, the porcine version of a very common human virus usually kept in check by the immune system. A PCR analysis of tissue from Bennett's heart showed some viral DNA, though researchers found no clear signs of infection.
The pig CMV clearly came from the transplant and was not something Bennett caught earlier, Mohiuddin said, although the pig had been checked for the virus using all available testing methods.
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That's interesting. How do you guaranty a totally disease-free pig?
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Interestingly I take an antiviral to protect me from (human) CMV which my donor had but I didn't. I have to take it forever.
CMV is very common, if I had had it pre-transplant it wouldn't be a problem and I wouldn't take the anti-virals. But if I catch it now it could be an issue.
BTW, Moderna is working on a vaccine for it.
