In a first, US doctors transplant pig heart into human patient

In a medical first that could one day help solve the chronic shortage of organ donations, US surgeons have successfully implanted a heart from a genetically modified pig in a 57-year-old man.

As per reports, the procedure may bring a new hope to hundreds of thousand of people with organ failure.

The doctors added that he's doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery.

He is now recovering and being carefully monitored to determine how the new organ performs.

Although the patient is still connected to a heart-lung bypass machine which was keeping him alive before the operation, doctors said the new heart is doing most of the work and there are no signs of rejection as of now. He is expected to be taken off the machine on Tuesday.

According to a news release by University of Maryland Medicine on Monday, David Bennett had terminal heart disease, and the pig heart was "the only currently available option."

Bennett was deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant or an artificial heart pump after reviews of his medical records.

"It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it's a shot in the dark, but it's my last choice," the Maryland resident said a day before the surgery.

As per the surgeons, the transplant showed that a heart from a genetically modified animal can function in the human body without immediate rejection.

Bennett, who has spent the last several months bedridden on a heart-lung bypass machine, added: "I look forward to getting out of bed after I recover."

The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization for the surgery on New Year's Eve, as a last ditch effort for a patient who was unsuitable for conventional transplant.