(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) –Doctor calls David Bennett ‘brave and noble patient’ whose condition began deteriorating several days ago.
David Bennett, the first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig, has died two months after the groundbreaking experiment, the hospital that performed the surgery has announced.
Bennett, 57, died on Tuesday at a hospital in Maryland in the United States, and doctors did give an exact cause of death.
In a statement on Wednesday the hospital said his condition began deteriorating several days ago, adding that Bennett was given “compassionate palliative care” after it became clear that he would not recover.
“We are devastated by the loss of Mr Bennett. He proved to be a brave and noble patient who fought all the way to the end,” Dr Bartley Griffith, who performed the surgery at the Baltimore hospital, said in a statement.
Doctors for decades have sought to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Bennett, a handyman from Hagerstown, Maryland, was a candidate for this newest attempt only because he otherwise faced certain death — ineligible for a human heart transplant, bedridden and on life support, and out of other options.
