In this image from video provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Lawrence Faucette, a pig heart transplant patient, works with a physical therapist at the school's hospital in Baltimore, Md., on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023. (Tom Jemski/University of Maryland School of Medicine via AP)
Lawrence Faucette was dying from heart failure and ineligible for a traditional heart transplant because of other health problems when doctors at the University of Maryland School of Medicine offered the highly experimental surgery.
In the first glimpse of Faucette provided since the Sept. 20 transplant, hospital video shows physical therapist Chris Wells urging him to smile while pushing through a pedaling exercise to regain his strength.
“That’s going to be tough but I’ll work it out,” Faucette, 58, replied, breathing heavily but giving a smile.
The Maryland team last year performed the world’s first transplant of a heart from a genetically altered pig into another dying man. David Bennett survived just two months before that heart failed, for reasons that aren’t completely clear although signs of a pig virus later were found inside the organ. Lessons from that first experiment led to changes before this second try, including better virus testing.
Attempts at animal-to-human organ transplants — called xenotransplants — have failed for decades, as people’s immune systems immediately destroyed the foreign tissue. Now scientists are trying again using pigs genetically modified to make their organs more humanlike.
In Friday’s hospital video, Faucette’s doctors said the pig heart has shown no sign of rejection.
“His heart is doing everything on its own,” said Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, the Maryland team’s cardiac xenotransplantation chief.
A hospital spokeswoman said Faucette, of Frederick, Maryland, has been able to stand and physical therapists are helping him gain strength needed to attempt walking.
Many scientists hope xenotransplants one day could compensate for the huge shortage of human organ donations. More than 100,000 people are on the nation’s list for a transplant, most awaiting kidneys, and thousands will die waiting.
A handful of scientific teams have tested pig kidneys and hearts in monkeys and in donated human bodies, hoping to learn enough for the Food and Drug Administration to allow formal xenotransplant studies.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
A subvariant of the omicron COVID-19 variant called BA.2 is causing an outbreak overseas. Now, some health experts worry it could also lead to an increase in COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Dr. Amesh Adalja, infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Dr. Alan Kaplin, Chief Scientific Officer of MyMD, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how the MYMD-1 is on track to be the first FDA-approved drug to treat aging and age-related diseases.
Tyler Hayes, CEO of Atom Limbs, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how the Atom Touch prosthetic is different from other prosthetics on the market, and how the Atom Limbs team of former Apple and Tesla leaders are bringing innovation into this industry.
Nouveau Monde Graphite says it wants to power the sustainable energy revolution. The Canadian company is developing carbon-neutral battery materials to serve the growing EV and cleantech markets and is doing so via a mining and manufacturing operation in Quebec. Eric Desaulniers, founder, president & CEO of Nouveau Monde Graphite, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Health experts are warning an even more contagious subvariant of Omicron, known as BA.2, could soon lead to another surge in Covid cases here in the U.S. The variant has already driven cases to skyrocket in China and Europe, which has historically served as a preview to the pattern the U.S. has seen throughout the pandemic. This comes at a time when protection from booster shots is waning for most people who got them. Dr. Jen Caudle, Family Physician & Associate Professor at Rowan University, explains what we can do to protect ourselves against the new variant and how we should act as warnings of another surge rise.
Catching you up on what you need to know Mar 24, 2022, with NATO meeting updates, Ukraine retaking suburbs around Kyiv, the spread of omicron subvariant BA.2 in China, Google Pay launching a third-party billing option, and a 16-year-old is suspected of being the Lapsus$ mastermind behind hacks of Microsoft and others.
Cannabis producer Cresco Labs is acquiring rival Columbia Care in a $2 billion all-stock deal, creating the largest U.S. cannabis company by sales. The deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2022, is one of the biggest in the industry's history and would make Cresco the dominant player in a market projected to reach $46 billion in revenue by 2026. Charlie Bachtell, CEO of Cresco Labs, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Moderna announced it's seeking emergency use approval for its COVID-19 vaccine from the FDA for children under 6 years old. A former FDA associate commissioner and the president and co-founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI) Peter Pitts joined Cheddar News to talk about the timeline, benefits, and risks that come with the approval of the vaccine. "We want to protect their parents and their grandparents and their caregivers and their daycare providers, so it's all about protecting not just the kids but all around the people that are surrounding those kids," he said.
Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine works in babies, toddlers and preschoolers. The company announced early findings Wednesday from a study of children younger than 6.
Catching you up on what you Need to Know on Mar 23, 2022, as NATO meets in Brussels to discuss Ukraine, mortgage rates rise, Justin Trudeau is set to lead Canada until 2025, tornadoes sweep through Louisiana, California may do away with SATs, and a Starbucks in Seattle unionizes.
