Historic surgery: Doctors successfully implant pig heart in human for the first time

In a huge medical achievement, US surgeons have successfully implanted a heart from a genetically modified pig in a 57-year-old man. The feat is a medical first that could one day help solve the chronic shortage of organ donations.

News agency AFP reported that the historic surgery, which is a major milestone for the animal to human transplantation, took place at the University of Maryland Medical School on Friday.

The patient is now recovering and being carefully monitored to determine how the new organ performs.

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The patient had spent the last several months bedridden on a heart-lung bypass machine. The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization for the surgery on New Year's Eve, as a last ditch effort for a patient who was unsuitable for conventional transplant, report said.

The donor pig belonged to a herd that had undergone genetic editing procedures.