AP WASHINGTON, By Lauran Neergaard — Surgeons have transplanted a pig’s heart into a dying man in a bid to prolong his life – only the second patient to ever undergo such an experimental feat. Two days later, the man was cracking jokes and able to sit in a chair, Maryland doctors said Friday.
The 58-year-old Navy veteran was facing near-certain death from heart failure but other health problems meant he wasn’t eligible for a traditional heart transplant, according to doctors at University of Maryland Medicine.
“Nobody knows from this point forward. At least now I have hope and I have a chance,” Lawrence Faucette, from Frederick, Maryland, said in a video recorded by the hospital before Wednesday’s operation. “I will fight tooth and nail for every breath I can take.”
While the next few weeks will be critical, doctors were thrilled at Faucette’s early response to the pig organ.
TOP FEATURE PHOTO Surgeons have transplanted a pig’s heart into a dying man in a bid to prolong his life. He’s only the second patient to undergo such an experimental feat. Maryland doctors said Friday that the man was cracking jokes and able to sit in a chair two days after the transplant Sept. 22
