American gets modified pig’s heart by Pakistani doctor

An American citizen, aged 57, David Bennet received a genetically modified pig’s heart which was implanted successfully by a Pakistani doctor, Dr Mansoor Mohiuddin along with a surgeon team from the University of Maryland in the United States (US).

A pig’s heart implantation in the human body is a landmark in the field of medical sciences.

Dr Mansoor Mohiuddin hails from Karachi and is a graduate of the Dow University of Health Sciences.

While talking to the Geo News, he said, “Experiments have been done on a monkey’s heart for heart transplants for humans in the past, but they did not work out. However, the experiment on a pig’s heart did.”

He further added, “We examined all animals to find which of them is closest to humans and found a pig suitable for the experiment.”

While talking about the expenditure he said the main expenses were incurred on the genetical modification of the pig’s heart as it a long procedure and doctors took seven genes from different pigs for modification that cost around $500,000 while the transplant surgery is insured in the US and other foreign countries.

Meanwhile, doctors are closely monitoring the health of the patient after the pig’s heart was implanted. The surgery took seven hours. Three days have passed and the recipient is doing well.