David Bennett, the primary human to efficiently bear a coronary heart transplant involving a , has died, based on . He was 57. It’s unclear if his physique rejected the organ medical doctors implanted in January. “There was no obvious cause identified at the time of his death,” a spokesperson for the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the hospital that carried out the process, advised the outlet. Physicians plan to hold out a full analysis earlier than publishing their findings in a peer-reviewed journal.

When Bennett’s transplant was first introduced, medical doctors handled the information with cautious optimism. And for a time, it regarded like that feeling was warranted. Not solely did Bennett’s physique not instantly reject the organ, however he was additionally ready to participate in bodily remedy and spend time together with his household. And whereas he was by no means discharged from the hospital, he did survive two months with the genetically modified organ beating rather than his human coronary heart.

Even if medical doctors decide the reason for dying was organ rejection, that’s no small milestone. , one of the crucial well-known sufferers to bear a xenotransplantation process, survived for 21 days earlier than her physique rejected her adopted baboon coronary heart. Part of the explanation medical doctors have been hopeful the process would work is that there’s a dire organ scarcity within the US and lots of others components of the world. According to the , about 17 Americans die every single day ready for an organ transplant.