Health
Pig heart transplanted into human patient for the second time
Surgeons have transplanted a pig’s heart into a dying man in a bid to prolong his life – only the second patient to ever undergo such an experimental feat. Two days later, the man was cracking jokes and able to sit in a chair, Maryland doctors said Friday.
The 58-year-old Navy veteran was facing near-certain death from heart failure but other health problems meant he wasn’t eligible for a traditional heart transplant, according to doctors at University of Maryland Medicine, the Associated Press reported.
“Nobody knows from this point forward. At least now I have hope and I have a chance,” Lawrence Faucette, from Frederick, Maryland, said in a video recorded by the hospital before Wednesday’s operation. “I will fight tooth and nail for every breath I can take.”
While the next few weeks will be critical, doctors were thrilled at Faucette’s early response to the pig organ.
“You know, I just keep shaking my head – how am I talking to someone who has a pig heart?” Dr. Bartley Griffith, who performed the transplant, told The Associated Press. He said doctors are feeling “a great privilege but, you know, a lot of pressure.”
The same Maryland team last year performed the world’s first transplanet of a genetically modified pig heart into another dying man, David Bennett, who survived just two months.
There’s a huge shortage of human organs donated for transplant. Last year, there were just over 4,100 heart transplants in the U.S., a record number but the supply is so tight that only patients with the best chance of long-term survival get offered one.
Attempts at animal-to-human organ transplants have failed for decades, as people’s immune systems immediately destroyed the foreign tissue. Now scientists are trying again using pigs genetically modified to make their organs more humanlike.
Recently, scientists at other hospitals have tested pig kidneys and hearts in donated human bodies, hoping to learn enough to begin formal studies of what are called xenotransplants.
To make this new attempt in a living patient outside of a rigorous trial, the Maryland researchers required special permission from the Food and Drug Administration, under a process reserved for certain emergency cases with no other options.
It took over 300 pages of documents filed with FDA, but the Maryland researchers made their case that they’d learned enough from their first attempt last year – even though that patient died for reasons that aren’t fully understood – that it made sense to try again.
And Faucette, who retired as a lab technician at the National Institutes of Health, had to agree that he understood the procedure’s risks.
In a statement his wife, Ann Faucette, said: “We have no expectations other than hoping for more time together. That could be as simple as sitting on the front porch and having coffee together.”
What’s different this time: Only after last year’s transplant did scientists discover signs of a pig virus lurking inside the heart – and they now have better tests to look for hidden viruses. They also made some medication changes.
Possibly more important, while Faucette has end-stage heart failure and was out of other options, he wasn’t as near death as the prior patient.
By Friday, his new heart was functioning well without any supportive machinery, the hospital said.
“It’s just an amazing feeling to see this pig heart work in a human,” said Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, the Maryland team’s xenotransplantation expert. But, he cautioned, “we don’t want to predict anything. We will take every day as a victory and move forward.”
This kind of single-patient “compassionate use” can provide some information about how the pig organ works but not nearly as much as more formal testing, said Karen Maschke, a research scholar at the Hastings Center who is helping develop ethics and policy recommendations for xenotransplant clinical trials. That FDA allowed this second case “suggests that the agency is not ready to permit a pig heart clinical trial to start,” Mashke added.
The pig heart, provided by Blacksburg, Virginia-based Revivicor, has 10 genetic modifications – knocking out some pig genes and adding some human ones to make it more acceptable to the human immune system.
Noor Jalal Jalali, Minister of Public Health of Afghanistan, held a meeting in Kabul with representatives of the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Union, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and other international organizations.
According to the ministry’s statement, representatives of these international organizations discussed the delivery of health and development services, improving the management of aid and resources in the health sector, integrating health facilities and aligning them with the new policy, providing health services in accordance with the Ministry of Public Health’s policy, strengthening the immunization and vaccination sector, delivering services based on priorities, and ensuring sustained coordination.
During the meeting, Jalali stressed the need for transparency and attention to the ministry’s priorities in order to enhance the effectiveness and impact of health services. He added that the delivery of health services must be carried out in line with the ministry’s policy and through better management of existing international assistance.
Referring to vaccination campaigns, he stated that the recent measles and polio vaccination campaign had been implemented very successfully, and emphasized that necessary preparations should be made for upcoming campaigns.
He also provided information regarding the review of the BPHS and EPHS health packages and the establishment of a standardized system through technical committees.
In this meeting, Edwin Ceniza, the WHO Representative for Afghanistan, reaffirmed the organization’s continued cooperation with the Ministry of Public Health and expressed appreciation to the ministry’s leadership for their tireless efforts to improve the health system.
Representatives of these organizations pledged to maintain effective and sustained coordination and to provide their services within the country in accordance with the policies and principles of the Ministry of Public Health.
Abdul Wali Haqqani, Deputy Minister for Health Services at the Ministry of Public Health of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), has departed for Turkey on an official visit accompanied by a high-ranking delegation.
According to a statement released by the Health Ministry on Wednesday, the trip aims to acquire new health-sector expertise, assess Turkish medical and scientific institutions, meet with Turkish health and government officials, and strengthen bilateral cooperation.
During the visit, the delegation is scheduled to meet representatives from both public and private health sectors to support improvements in Afghanistan’s healthcare system and enhance coordination between the two countries, the statement added.
Health
Polio vaccination drive launches across 17 Afghan provinces
Officials say routine vaccination remains the most effective tool for eliminating polio and have urged families to fully cooperate with health teams during the campaign.
The Ministry of Public Health has announced the launch of a major anti-polio vaccination campaign, set to begin on Monday across 17 provinces of Afghanistan.
According to Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the ministry, the nationwide initiative will target 7.4 million children under the age of five, delivering vaccines door-to-door to prevent the spread of the poliovirus and safeguard children’s health.
Officials say routine vaccination remains the most effective tool for eliminating polio and have urged families to fully cooperate with health teams during the campaign.
This effort forms part of the government’s ongoing strategy to protect Afghanistan’s next generation from preventable diseases and strengthen public health across the country.
This comes after the World Health Organization (WHO) recently again classified the global spread of poliovirus as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), warning that the disease remains endemic in only two countries — Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The decision followed the 43rd meeting of the Polio Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations (IHR), which convened on 1 October 2025.
According to the Committee, Afghanistan reported four new wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases so far this year, compared to 24 in Pakistan.
The Afghan cases were detected in the country’s southern and eastern regions, where transmission remains intense despite ongoing vaccination efforts.
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