Bartley P. Griffith
American heart surgeon (born 1949)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bartley P. Griffith (born 1949) is an American heart surgeon.[2] He is the first person to successfully transplant a pig heart into a human being.[3]
Bartley P. Griffith | |
|---|---|
Griffith in 2022 | |
| Born | 1949 (age 76–77) |
| Education | Bucknell University (1970),[1] Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University (MD) (1974) |
| Known for | First successful heart transplant (about 2 month survival) from a pig to a human patient; the pig had been genetically modified to work better |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Surgeon |
| Field | Professor of Cardiac Surgery |
| Institutions | University of Maryland Medical Center University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine |
| Sub-specialties | Cardiothoracic surgery Heart transplantation Lung transplantation Cardiac surgery |
Pig heart transplants
Griffith joined Muhammad Mohiuddin's MD Xenoheart laboratory in 2018. Together, they were able to demonstrate that the heart of a genetically altered pig could support life when transplanted into an orthotopic position in the chest for up to 9 months. Griffith and Mohiuddin performed the first successful xenotransplantation of a genetically modified pig heart to a human on January 7, 2022.[3] The recipient was 57-year-old David Bennett Sr. The procedure occurred at the University of Maryland Medical Center.[4] Due to complications, David Bennett Sr died on March 8, 2022.[5]
On September 20, 2023, Bartley P. Griffith performed his second pig heart transplant.[6]
