On October 30, 2023, Lawrence Fawcett passed away at the University of Maryland Medical Center. He was 58 years old. In his obituary, his loved ones remembered his kindness with an assortment of Hawaiian shirts, Tilly Brand hats and hooded bathrobes. But to the medical community, Fawcett’s life was notable for what her family deemed a “brave adventure” as she became the second person in history to receive a genetically engineered pig’s heart, which helped her survive the transplant. It remained alive for nearly six weeks. For six weeks until his body rejected the transplanted heart, he attended physical therapy, spent time with his family and played cards with his wife, Ann. This experience is expected to improve outcomes for other heart disease patients.
Fawcett was deemed ineligible for a traditional heart transplant due to his advanced medical conditions, including peripheral vascular disease. On September 15, the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization for the surgery in hopes of prolonging UMMC’s life. Five days later, an eight-hour operation took place, and two days later the patient was awake, sitting in a chair, breathing on his own, and his new heart was pumping without the aid of assistive devices.
Before her death, Ms. Fawcett achieved important milestones, including engaging in physical therapy and working to regain her ability to walk.
As with UMMC’s first attempt to transplant a pig heart into a human recipient in 2022, strict infection control measures were carefully taken to protect against known porcine pathogens. Genetic and ethical concerns were part of the process, and lessons learned from the first pig heart transplant were incorporated into this effort, resulting in special precautions, new and more sensitive tests for viral DNA, and A search for antibodies against cytomegalovirus was conducted. The first transplant recipient’s heart fails.
In everything, the patient came first. Fawcett was surrounded by a medical team when he died.
“Mr. Fawcett’s final wish is that we make the most of what we have learned from our experience so that even when human organs are unavailable, others are guaranteed the opportunity to make new hearts.” “They wanted us to do it,” said Dr. Bartley Griffiths, who performed the surgery. “We will miss him very much.”
