Transplanting a pig’s heart into a human, Pakistan-born US cardiologist creates history

NEW YORK – A Pakistani-born doctor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has contributed significantly to medical science. Dr. Mohiuddin successfully transplanted a genetically altered pig heart into a terminally ill patient.

David Bennett, 57, became the first person in the world to have a heart surgery from a domestic porker with the first of its kind transplant.

Dr. Mansoor Mohiuddin, a graduate of Dow University of Health Sciences and a former Karachi resident, has spent the last three decades attempting to figure out how to save terminally ill patients in need of a heart transplant.

The heart of a chimpanzee was inserted in a prior experiment, but the patient did not survive, the US-based cardiac surgeon told a local news site.

According to him, the team looked at a variety of animals to find which species was the most similar to humans. Mansoor stated that while the cost of a historic transplant is expensive at the present, the patient is doing well three days after the seven-hour treatment.

The pig-to-human heart transplant was thought to be the last opportunity for the US citizen's survival, and the odds were unknown prior to the treatment. The accomplishment in medical science is thought to bring the world one step closer to resolving the organ scarcity dilemma.