TOPSHOT - Cardiovascular surgeons Susana Villar (R) and Juan Esteban de Villarreal (L) perform a heart transplant at an operating theatre in Puerta de Hierro University Hospital in Majadahonda, near Madrid, . - For a time-critical procedure that is heavily reliant on intensive care, the Covid pandemic and its explosion of desperately-ill patients has thrown up a barrage of complexities which Spain's world leading organ transplant experts have been forced to surmount. (Photo by JAVIER SORIANO / AFP) / THIS PICTURE MUST BE PUBLISHED UNDATED AT THE REQUEST OF THE HOSPITAL - TO GO WITH AFP STORY "For transplants, Covid complicates the race against time" by MARIE GIFFARD (Photo by JAVIER SORIANO/AFP via Getty Images)
Would y’all want another chance at life if it meant having a pig’s heart transplanted into your body, Roomies? Well, researchers are moving forward with surgical experiments to make that a reality! As we previously reported, doctors at the University of Maryland tried the experiment last year with no success, but researchers seem to be making progress at New York University.
According to NBC News, researchers at NYU Langone Health recently transplanted pig hearts into two people who were on life support after suffering heart failure that left them brain dead. Both patients’ hearts reportedly continued to function throughout the three-day experiment and were not immediately rejected by the new bodies.
Dr. Nader Moazami, a surgeon who participated in the experiment, had this to say about their findings:
The heart was literally banging away. It was contracting completely normally. We learned a tremendous amount.”
Unlike University of Maryland doctors, who implanted a pig heart into a living patient last year, the NYU research team did so on clinically deceased patients. Doctors are hopeful that the new research model will show more success. It allows researches to “rigorously test, refine treatments and collect detailed data without fear that experimentation will take a patient’s life,” NBC reports.
Doctors are reportedly hoping that pig organs could “expand access to transplants and allow doctors to broaden who is eligible for such procedures.Especially since the organ supply needed to fulfill transplants nationwide continues to decrease.
In 2021, the national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network reported that more than 116,000 people in the United States were on waiting lists for organ transplants.
Doctors have not yet cleared pig organs for medical use, as the procedure is still in the experimental stage.
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