The architect of pig heart transplants: ‘The patient can decide whether they want an organ from a sick person or a healthy pig’
A flying pig with a superhero cape on its back was projected for a few seconds on the giant screen in the auditorium of the Hospital Sant Pau in Barcelona. “They used to say that the xenotransplants would work when pig flew. Well, the pigs are flying,” said transplant surgeon Muhammad Mohiuddin (Hyderabad, India, 59 years old) at the conclusion of the scientific conference he led a few weeks ago. The doctor, who is the director of the cardiac xenotransplantation program at the University of Maryland, is a pioneer in transplanting pig hearts into humans. His team successfully carried out the world’s first in 2022 with patient David Bennett, and repeated the feat in 2023 with Lawrence Faucette. The doctors were able to transplant the animal organ in both cases and prolong the men’s lives, but for only a short time: both died a few weeks after receiving their grafts. Nonetheless, this story is that of the first living proof of what can be done. The technique proved feasible: a pig heart could beat in a human being’s chest.
Xenotransplant — organ or tissue transplant from animals to people — has emerged as an alternative in the face of a global lack of donors. “In the United States, 150,000 people are waiting for a transplant. Every 80 minutes, someone dies for want of an organ,” explained Mohiuddin, who visited Barcelona on May 9 to participate in events commemorating the 40th anniversary of Spain’s first heart transplant, which took place in Sant Pau in 1984. In Spain, one of the world’s leading countries when it comes to donations and transplants, 6,000 procedures were carried out in 2023 and as of December 31, 4,794 people were on the waiting list to receive an organ.
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