David Bennett, Jr., who received a genetically modified pig’s heart, has died, hospital says

Bennett “proved to be a brave and noble patient who fought all the way to the end,” said Bartley P. Griffith Jr., the surgeon who performed the heart transplant. “Mr. Bennett became known by millions of people around the world for his courage and steadfast will to live.”

Bennett’s death is a setback for the accelerating field of xenotransplantation — the process of implanting organs from one species into another. Recent advances, including Bennett’s surgery and kidney transplants into brain dead humans at NYC Langone and the University of Birmingham at Alabama, have been made possible by new technologies. They include CRISPR, the gene-editing tool that was recognized with a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2020.

Doctors hope the use of organs from genetically altered animals can address the shortage of organs available for transplant.

The need is dire. More than 100,000 patients are on the national transplant waiting list. Seventeen of them die every day awaiting donor organs.

Bennett, who suffered from heart failure and an irregular heartbeat, was deemed ineligible for a conventional human heart transplant. The hospital said he consented to the experimental procedure, which came with “unknown risks and benefits.” The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization for the surgery Dec. 31. It took place a week later.

Xenotransplantation, which involves breeding a genetically modified pig to provide organs that humans are less likely to reject, has raised concerns among animal rights organizers and is closely monitored by ethicists.

The Post reported shortly after the surgery took place that Bennett was convicted in 1988 of stabbing a man seven times, leaving him paralyzed. A jury acquitted Bennett of intent to murder but found him guilty of battery and carrying a concealed weapon. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and served six.

The victim, Edward Schumacher, spent 19 years in a wheelchair, suffered a stroke in 2005 and died two years later at 40, The Post reported. University of Maryland Medical Center officials declined in January to say whether they knew about Bennett’s criminal past.

The hospital said Wednesday that Bennett’s heart transplant was initially successful and there were no signs of rejection. Bennett underwent physical therapy and watched the Super Bowl with his family.

“We have gained invaluable insights learning that the genetically modified pig heart can function well within the human body while the immune system is adequately suppressed,” said Muhammad M. Mohiuddin, a professor of surgery and scientific director of the cardiac xenotransplantation Program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “We remain optimistic and plan on continuing our work in future clinical trials.”