Second person to receive pig heart transplant dies, Maryland hospital says

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The second person to receive a transplanted heart from a pig has died, nearly six weeks after the highly experimental surgery, his Maryland doctors announced Tuesday.

Lawrence Faucette, 58, was dying from heart failure and ineligible for a traditional heart transplant when he received the genetically modified pig heart on Sept. 20. Read the full article in CBS News.

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Heart failure, then a transplant – for both dad and college-athlete son

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By Deborah Lynn Blumberg, American Heart Association News

When Ryan Scoble was a junior lacrosse player at Mercyhurst University, he came home to Cincinnati for winter break eager to see his father.

Ryan’s dad, Steve, had dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscle becomes weakened, then enlarged. Steve had surgery to implant a machine called a left ventricular assist device, or LVAD; it essentially does the work of the left side of the heart. He was waiting for a heart transplant. And he was recovering from a stroke. Read the full story from the American Heart Association.

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How New Advances in Organ Transplants Are Saving Lives

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Advances are increasing the supply of organs. But this isn’t enough. Enter the genetically modified donor pig

By Tanya Lewis

Robert Montgomery walked deliberately down the hospital hallway carrying a stainless-steel bowl containing a living human kidney resting on a bed of ice. Minutes earlier the organ had been in one man’s body. It was about to be implanted into another man to keep him alive.

It was about 11 A.M. on a Monday this past spring. I followed Montgomery, an abdominal transplant surgeon and director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, into an operating room where 49-year-old John Primavera was waiting to receive the precious kidney.
Read the full article in Scientific American.

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‘Grateful to be alive:’ Man continues to heal one month after pig heart transplant

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By Eric Lagatta

As he works hard to recover, Lawrence Faucette maintains his dream of soon returning home one month after he became the second person to receive the transplanted heart of a pig.

Though highly-experimental, the procedure was seemingly the 58-year-old man’s last hope to extend his life after health problems made him ineligible for a traditional heart transplant. But so far, his doctors at the University of Maryland School of Medicine say Faucette’s new heart is functioning well and showing no signs of rejection. Read the full story in USA Today.

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I Would Have Died Without A Transplant. Here’s My Story Documenting The Journey.

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“I can’t articulate what it was like to lose my mother like that, after being diagnosed with the same disease. I just know the fear of meeting that same fate was something I carried since that hot July day.”

By Alison Conklin

When I was 13 years old, I passed out in the middle of a competitive game of floor hockey in gym class. A trip to the hospital later, I’d been diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease that often causes thickening of the heart.

Five months after that diagnosis, my mother and I were in the kitchen together. We’d been chatting as she cooked, but suddenly she said she didn’t feel well. I watched as she collapsed to the floor. Read the full story in the HuffPost.

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‘She made a difference’: Ohio heart transplant recipient meets donor’s family

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By Katie Shatsby

ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio (WDTN) — An Ohio woman who received a heart transplant got the chance to meet the father of her donor in an emotional gathering.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, Katherine Schroeder-Herrmann was born with a rare congenital heart disease, requiring more than 20 heart procedures before the age of 22. Check out the full story in WDTN News 2.

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Complex pregnancies after heart transplant underscore need for patient counseling

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By Regina Schaffer

Data show pregnancy after heart transplant brings significant risks for all-cause and CV maternal morbidity as well as higher risks for cesarean delivery and hospital readmission within 1 year, highlighting the need for patient counseling.

Female patients aged 18 to 49 comprised approximately 8% of heart transplant recipients in 2021, Amanda Craig, MD, assistant professor in the division of maternal-fetal medicine at Duke University Hospital, and colleagues wrote in JACC: Heart Failure. Read more in Healio.

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Complex pregnancies after heart transplant underscore need for patient counseling

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By Regina Schaffer

Data show pregnancy after heart transplant brings significant risks for all-cause and CV maternal morbidity as well as higher risks for cesarean delivery and hospital readmission within 1 year, highlighting the need for patient counseling.

Female patients aged 18 to 49 comprised approximately 8% of heart transplant recipients in 2021, Amanda Craig, MD, assistant professor in the division of maternal-fetal medicine at Duke University Hospital, and colleagues wrote in JACC: Heart Failure. Read the full story in Healio.

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