Maryland, United States

In a miraculous surgery, the heart of a pig was transplanted into a dying man by surgeons in the United States to prolong his life. This experiment made the patient the second human ever in the world to undergo such an experimental feat.

After two days, the man was able to sit in a chair and crack jokes, said Maryland doctors on Friday (September 22). The 58-year-old Navy veteran was in a near-certain death situation due to heart failure, however, due to other health problems he was not able to go through a traditional heart transplant, as per doctors at the University of Maryland Medicine.

“Nobody knows from this point forward. At least now I have hope and I have a chance,” said Lawrence Faucette, from Frederick, Maryland, in a video which was recorded by the hospital before the operation started on Wednesday. “I will fight tooth and nail for every breath I can take,” he added.

Although the next few weeks will remain critical for the man, the doctors have been thrilled at the early response of Faucette to the pig organ.

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“You know, I just keep shaking my head – how am I talking to someone who has a pig heart?,” stated Dr Bartley Griffith, who performed the transplant surgery. He stated that the doctors are feeling “a great privilege but, you know, a lot of pressure”.

Last year, the same Maryland team performed the first-ever transplant of a genetically modified pig heart into another man, who was on his deathbed. The man, David Bennett, could survive for only two months.

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No expectations, said the man with a pig's heart before surgery

Faucette, who earlier worked as a lab technician at the National Institutes of Health, understood the risks involved in the procedure before going to the surgery.

In a statement addressed to his wife Ann Faucette, he said, “We have no expectations other than hoping for more time together. That could be as simple as sitting on the front porch and having coffee together.”

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After the surgery happened on Wednesday, the man's new heart was functioning well on Friday without any supportive machinery, said the hospital.

“It’s just an amazing feeling to see this pig heart work in a human,” stated Dr Muhammad Mohiuddin, the xenotransplantation expert of the Maryland team. However, he cautioned: “We don’t want to predict anything. We will take every day as a victory and move forward.”

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