Hearts on Demand?

[zoony]

Not unexpected I suppose but a great step forward, is the pig's heart transplant to the chap in the USA.. What think you?

[Michael Rolls]

Anything that works
Mike

[klondike]

I heard that on the news from my smart speaker. The guy himself is a brave pioneer. He hopes that the experience gained from his operation will help others.

[Wandering Walter]

Fantastic if he works as well as expected in the not too distant future more people can be saved, my Mother had a faulty valve in her heart about 60 years ago they replaced in with a valve from a pig way back then, she is still with us at 90 years of age, albeit she has advanced Dementia

[Scrumpy]

It's all good news..
It wouldn't worry me having the heart of a pig.. Far better than the alternative..

[Cassandra]

If Boris had one, the Heart would reject him

[Flying Bomb]

That pig saved his bacon ! 
He'll now be able to trotter around again. 

[Michael Rolls]

That pig saved his bacon ! 
He'll now be able to trotter around again. 

[zoony]

Fantastic if he works as well as expected in the not too distant future more people can be saved, my Mother had a faulty valve in her heart about 60 years ago they replaced in with a valve from a pig way back then, she is still with us at 90 years of age, albeit she has advanced Dementia

Glad you agree Walter.. It's a huge step forward in so many areas of transplantability... I guess the side-benefit is there'll be lots of pampered bacon .. Though I assume that'll be a casualty of 'woke'.

[TREBOR]

My mother also had a heart value replacement using one from a pig. That was back in the 1970s. Later it was replaced by a modern plastic one.

[zoony]

I can't see it as anything other than a good thing. From small babies to middle-aged adults with a need for a heart there are now options other than death. And it's not only hearts of course..

[klondike]

And it's not only hearts of course..
Good point. I think the biggest challenge is to stop the body's defences from rejecting the transplant without destroyng the immune system entirely. If they have discovered how to do that with a pig heart then I'm guessing other organs are possible too.

[Wandering Walter]

Apparently the heart was genetically altered to try and prevent it being rejected by the patients body hopefully if all goes well what a great achievement for medical science   

[klondike]

They were trying to grow some body parts in vitro from stem cells but maybe a heart is too complex for that. It does serve a simple function but I guess reliabilty issues would rule out anything artifical.

[crabbyob]

plus i once read that a pigs orgasm can last up to thirty minutes.... what a side effect...