US man who received pig heart has a criminal record, check details

The Maryland resident had once stabbed a man seven times leaving him paralysed.

New Delhi: The US man who had recently received a successful transplant of a 'porcine' heart is in the news again. David Bennett, 57, who received a successful transplant of a genetically-modified pig heart, is said to have a criminal record.

According to The New York Times, the Maryland resident had once stabbed a man seven times and left him paralysed. Bennett was convicted of stabbing Edward Shumaker in 1988 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Leslie, the elder sister of Edward, said that he died in 2007 after nearly twenty years of medical complications linked to the stabbing incident.

This is noteworthy that the University of Maryland Medicine had said on January 10 had said that their surgeons have performed a successful transplant of a 'porcine' heart into an adult human with end-stage heart disease. 

"It was the only currently available option for the patient," the University had said in a statement.

"This organ transplant demonstrated for the first time that a genetically-modified animal heart can function like a human heart without immediate rejection by the body," the University said in a statement.

David Bennett, the University said, had been deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant at UMMC as well as at several other leading transplant centres that reviewed his medical records.

"It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it's a shot in the dark, but it's my last choice," Bennett, who had been hospitalized and bedridden for the past few months, had said before the surgery.

Bartley P Griffith, MD, who surgically transplanted the pig heart, said that this was a breakthrough surgery and brings us one step closer to solving the organ shortage crisis. 

"We are proceeding cautiously, but we are also optimistic that this first-in-the-world surgery will provide an important new option for patients in the future," Griffith said.

It is noteworthy that the US Food and Drug Administration had granted emergency authorization for the surgery on New Year's Eve through its expanded access (compassionate use) provision. 

It is used when an experimental medical product, in this case, the genetically-modified pig’s heart, is the only option available for a patient faced with a serious or life-threatening medical condition.