A man with life-threatening heart disease was the first to successfully receive a pig's heart in Maryland, Baltimore.
David Bennett Sr., 57, underwent the 8-hour surgery on Friday (US Time) as a last resort after being denied a human heart, The New York Times reported.
"It was either die or do this transplant," Bennett said before the surgery, according to officials at the University of Maryland Medical Center. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice."
A surgeon at the University of Maryland Medical Center who performed the surgery said Bennett was doing well.
"It creates the pulse, it creates the pressure, it is his heart," said the director of the cardiac transplant program, Bartley Griffith. "It’s working and it looks normal. We are thrilled, but we don’t know what tomorrow will bring us."
"This has never been done before."
Dr Griffin first raised the experimental procedure to Bennet in mid-December.
"I wasn’t sure he was understanding me," Dr Griffith added. "Then he said, 'Well, will I oink?'"
The New York Times reported Bennet's new heart is functioning well and he could be taken off a heart-lung bypass machine Tuesday (US Time).
He is currently being monitored for signs of his body rejecting the heart and for infections.
The pig had gone through 10 genetic modifications to make the organ less likely to be rejected by humans.
Xenotransplantation, the process of transplanting organs has had a long history. Notably, in 1983, a baboon heart was transplanted into an infant known as Baby Fae, who died 20 days later.
The demand for human organs in America is high with 3,817 Americans receiving human donor hearts last year. However, there is a shortage of donors and around a dozen people on the list die each day, The New York Times reported.
The breakthrough hopes to usher new procedures like this in future so organs are no longer in short supply.
