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Lawrence Faucette, the 58-year-old man who in September became the second person in history to receive a genetically modified pig heart transplant at the University of Maryland Medical Center, died Monday after starting to show signs of organ rejection. Faucette, who was dying of heart disease when he received the transplant Sept. 20, lived for nearly six weeks following the procedure, the University of Maryland School of Medicine said Tuesday in a news release. (Roberts, 10/31)

Lawrence Faucette, of Frederick, Md., was the second patient at the medical center to have had an ailing heart replaced with one from a pig that had been genetically modified so its organs would be more compatible with a human recipient and would not be rejected by the human immune system. The first patient, 57-year-old David Bennett, died last year, two months after his transplant. He had developed multiple complications, and traces of a virus that infects pigs were found in his new heart. (Caryn Rabin, 10/31)

Dr. Bartley Griffith, the surgeon who performed the transplant said in a statement that he was extremely saddened by Faucette's death. “Mr. Faucette's last wish was for us to make the most of what we have learned from our experience, so others may be guaranteed a chance for a new heart when a human organ is unavailable. He then told the team of doctors and nurses who gathered around him that he loved us. We will miss him tremendously.” (Weintraub, 10/31)