Pig Heart Recipient Alert, Making Progress At Maryland Hospital

BALTIMORE, MD — A Maryland man who received the world's first pig heart transplant at the University of Maryland Medical Center continues to amaze doctors. David Bennett, 57, has now lived longer than the first person to receive the world's first human heart transplant in 1967, doctors said.

In a video released by the hospital system, doctors described Bennett nearly four weeks after surgery as remarkably alert and talking. They said his new heart is also beating very well.

"It's showing no signs of rejection. In fact, it's beating so well, we have to give drugs to slow it down," said Muhammad M. Mohiuddin, MD, professor of surgery at UMSOM.

Dr. Bartley Griffith led the team of surgeons and specialists who performed the historic transplant on Jan. 7.

"He kind of knows what's going on, and he'll give me a wave and he'll usually beckon me. Then he'll tell me he wants to go home," Griffith said.

SEE ALSO: Maryland Man Receives Heart From Genetically Altered Pig

Doctors said Bennett has an army of specialists and nurses who tend to him around the clock. He's also taking part in physical therapy but won't be going home anytime soon.

"It will be a process of long rehabilitation, and we'll help him with that. Then hopefully one day, he'll be able to go home and walk his dog," Mohiuddin said in the video.

Along with conventional drugs to suppress his immune system, doctors said Bennett is receiving an experimental, anti-rejection drug that prevents T cells and B cells from triggering an attack on the heart.

Video of Bennett's Progress:

"We are feeling progressively confident that we are ahead of issues with respect to heart rejection — for a while, months maybe," Griffith said.

About 110,000 Americans are currently waiting for an organ transplant, and more than 6,000 patients die each year before getting one, according to the federal government's organdonor.gov.

Bennett, who suffered from terminal heart disease, had been deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant at UMMC, as well as at several other leading transplant centers that reviewed his medical records.