This article just popped up on my feed.
Forget blood type. Soon we’ll be able to transplant organs from different species
This has little to do with farming in that these pigs will be VERY special. As in cloned perfectly grown pigs harvested for their organs. I doubt the meat will even be used, which is sad really. But I hate to think what the feeding program will be for these guys. Anybody ever lived off of hospital food? Ugh. But I bet the organs will be perfect. Pigs are a great human analog and if people who need transplants can get them from pigs, without rejection, this could be a tremendous game changer. A pig is well sized in a year meaning organs can be produced in VERY short order. Imagine the hundreds of thousands of people waiting on the miracle of an organ transplant suddenly being able to get their life giving organ.
Is it sad for the pig. Yep. But if it is your Aunt Edna who needs a kidney to live, I doubt you’ll care quite as much about the pig. Just remember, the way it works now for Aunt Edna to get her kidney is that somebody else has to die. And die in a very specific way. Then a team of surgeons and nurses has to be flown in the middle of the night to go and harvest these organs while the donor family is still outside grieving. Then they are whisked back to their hospital, with the organ in a cooler, where the organ is transplanted into the recipient.
I used to fly these flights back when I was flying before and hauled doctors and organs around. Nobody slept. Everyone was uncomfortable and rushed. The worst weather I’ve ever flown through was on one of these flights. You started at 7pm usually and ended about 4am. You had ZERO notice that you’d be going that night so of course you haven’t slept or prepared. I’ve seen surgeons, who’d just removed organs from a donor and who were about to transplant a heart into a recipient, sleeping STANDING UP unsupported.
The guy had probably already been up 36 hours and was about to conduct a multi-hour surgery that was impossible a decade or two ago. He might have been operating on you, beyond fatigued. What do you think the odds are of him making a mistake? It was superhuman that these surgeons did what they did and still do it today to save our lives.
What if, instead, he could order a heart from the supplier, have it here say, next Tuesday. Does Tuesday work for you? Ok, 9am on Tuesday. We’ll get that new heart in and you’ll be good to go after recovery. Everyone plans. Everyone is rested. And you didn’t wait an extra 18 months thinking you may die at any moment.
That’s a pretty big deal.
This is great medicine! My husband had an unknown heart defect that was found in his 60s, they replaced his aorta valve with a pigs. He is back 100% and feels so good… if we had not had that option, he would have had to get a metal valve and that would have required heavy duty blood thinners the rest of his life. The only medication he takes now is 1 baby aspirin! Thanks for the post.