BALTIMORE — A Maryland man who was the first person to receive a transplanted pig heart died Tuesday, two months after the groundbreaking surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Officials at the Baltimore hospital said David Bennett began deteriorating a few days ago and was given palliative care. He was able to communicate with his family, the officials said.
The animal-to-human transplant, or xenotransplant, was offered to Bennett, a 57-year-old parent with terminal heart disease. He had come to the hospital in October 2021 seriously ill and was placed on a lifesaving heart-lung machine but deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant.
