‘HE LOVED US’

Second Patient to Receive Pig Heart Transplant Dies Weeks After Surgery

The 58-year-old was dying from heart failure when he received the genetically modified pig’s heart on Sept. 20.

A 58-year-old man with heart failure who became the second living person in history to receive a genetically modified pig heart transplant died Monday after he began exhibiting signs of organ rejection, the University of Maryland School of Medicine said. Lawrence Faucette lived for nearly six weeks after the experimental procedure was performed on Sept. 20, six days after he was admitted. His disease and pre-existing conditions made him ineligible for a traditional human heart transplant, the university said. “Mr. Faucette’s last wish was for us to make the most of what we have learned from our experience, so others may be guaranteed a chance for a new heart when a human organ is unavailable,” Dr. Bartley Griffith, who performed the surgery, said in a statement. “He then told the team of doctors and nurses who gathered around him that he loved us. We will miss him tremendously.”