Vietnam veteran
The organ recipients were recently deceased patients who had expressed the clear wish to be organ donors but whose organs were for clinical reasons unsuitable for transplant.
The first recipient was Lawrence Kelly, a Vietnam War veteran and welder who died from heart failure at the age of 72.
“He was an organ donor, and would be so happy to know how much his contribution to this research will help people like him with this heart disease. He was a hero his whole life, and he went out a hero,” said Alice Michael, Mr. Kelly’s partner of 33 years, who also spoke at the briefing.
“It was, I think, one of the most incredible things to see a pig heart pounding away and beating inside the chest of a human being,” said Robert A. Montgomery, MD, DPhil, director of the NYU Transplant Institute, and himself a heart transplant recipient.
Dr. Fishman said he had no relevant conflicts of interest.
This article was updated on 7/12/22 and 7/14/22.