The Guy Who Got A Pig Heart Transplant Once Stabbed A Man & The Victim's Family Is Angry
He went to prison for the attack in 1988.
People were pretty excited when a man got the world's first successful pig heart transplant last week.
Some are less excited now that his criminal record is out.
David Bennett, the 57-year-old patient involved in the procedure, attacked someone and left him paralyzed 34 years ago, the New York Times reports.
Bennett stabbed Ed Shumaker seven times at a bar in Maryland in 1988, according to reports on his criminal record. Shumaker would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair because of his injuries, and he died at age 40 in 2007.
Now Shumaker's family is speaking out and raising new ethical questions about the heart transplant.
“Ed suffered,” said the victim’s sister, Leslie Shucker Downer, per the Independent.
"The devastation and the trauma, for years and years, that my family had to deal with… Now [David Bennett] gets a second chance with a new heart — but I wish it had gone to a deserving recipient.”
Leslie and Ed's brother was the EMT who responded to the attack, and he fell into addiction afterward and died of an overdose at age 28, she added.
Bennett became the first-ever person to receive a genetically modified pig heart transplant last week, in a surgery conducted by doctors at the University of Maryland.
The procedure could possibly be a breakthrough in medicine and efforts to solve the crisis in organs donor shortages.
But Shumaker's family says they wish someone else had been that first patient.
Bennett reportedly spent 10 years in prison for battery and carrying a concealed weapon after the attack on Shumaker. The victim's family later sued Bennett and won $3.4 million in damages.
The University of Maryland Medical Center responded to their patient's dark past with a statement that said they provide "lifesaving care to every patient who comes through their doors based on their background or life circumstances."
"This patient came to us in dire need, and a decision was made about his transplant eligibility based solely on his medical records," they said.
Bennet received the transplant after being rejected by many hospitals for the procedure due to his poor medical history.
“It is the solemn obligation of any hospital or health care organization to provide lifesaving care to every patient who comes through their doors based on their medical needs,” the doctors who gave him the heart said.
