Cocaine aided in first-ever pig to human heart transplant. Know how

Cocaine helped preserve the pig heart that was later transplanted into a human patient, Vice reports. A miniscule amount of the stimulant drug was added in a formula, without which the operation would have probably failed. The transplant, first of its kind, took place last month at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). 

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The report says that ‘surgeons used a solution containing a small quantity of marching powder in order to keep the heart viable prior to performing the life-saving operation’.

Why was cocaine and the formula necessary?

Depending on the body part, donor organs’ survival time outside the body can range from a few hours to a day and a half livescience.com states. 

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The heart is only viable for 4-6 hours, donoralliance.org says. 

Hence several procedures fail because organs detoriate while in transit and surgeons adopt various techniques to extend the lifespan of these excised biological components.

In the case, where a porcine heart was being transplanted into a human patient, surgeons treated the organ with a solution containing a mix of hormones, including cortisol and adrenaline, as well as cocaine.

The formula, as per the report, was produced by a Swedish company XVIVO and had to be imported into the United States. It was placed under intense scrutiny by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) before being approved for use.

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“When we were not using this solution, we were getting failures within 48 hours. But when we started using this and infusing the heart with this solution, the heart became well preserved and started beating very well,” Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, the director of cardiac xenotransplantation at UMMC told Vice. 

He further added that expanding access to the Charlie-laced solution could help to save the lives of countless people in need of organ transplants. 

“It will be a great advance if this process is approved by the regulatory agencies here also, as we cannot get hearts usually within the span of two to three hours. This will allow us to get hearts from other states.”

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The patient, David Bennett, 57, knew there was no guarantee the experiment would work but he was dying, ineligible for a human heart transplant and had no other option, his son told The Associated Press.

“It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” Bennett said a day before the surgery, according to a statement provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine.