The Judgement of Solomon

Some critics are outraged that a person convicted of a violent crime would be awarded an organ that so many others so desperately need.  University of Maryland School of Medicine

 

"The key principle in medicine is to treat anyone who is sick, regardless of who they are."

"We are not in the business of sorting sinners from saints. Crime is a legal matter."

Arthur Caplan, bioethics professor, New York University

 

"Ed suffered. the devastation and the trauma, for years and years, that my family had to deal with."

"[Once Bennett was released from prison he] went on and lived a good life. Now he gets a second chance with a new heart -- but I wish, in my opinion, it had gone to a deserving recipient."

"He's being given another shot at life. But my brother Ed wasn't given a shot at life. Ed was given a death sentence."

Leslie Shumaker Downey, sister of Edward Shumaker

 

"I said, 'We can't give you a human heart; you don't qualify. But maybe we can use one from an animal, a pig. It's never been done before, but we think we can do it."

"I wasn't sure he was understanding me. Then he said, 'Well, will I oink'?"

Dr.Bartley Griffith, heart transplant surgeon, University of Maryland Medical Center 

"We have a legal system designed to determine just redress for crimes. And we have a health-care system that aims to provide care without regard to people's personal character or history."

Scott Halpern, professor of medical ethics, University of Pennsylvania

 

"[The Baltimore hospital provides] life-saving care to every patient who comes through their doors based on their medical needs, not 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."

University of Maryland Medical Center official statement

David Bennett was convicted of the 1988 bar stabbing of Edward Shumaker, an attack that resulted in the victim needing to use a wheelchair before having a stroke and dying. University of Maryland School of Medicine

The story originally began back in 1988, almost 34 years before David Bennett Sr. broke medical history by becoming the first human to receive a genetically modified pig heart, and with it the chance to live a little longer. Back then, in his 20s, he entered the Double T Lounge in Hagerstown, Maryland. And came into contact with 22-year-old Edward Shumaker who was drinking while speaking with Bennett's then-wife Norma Jean Bennett. The innocence of the encounter marred by Bennett's wife sitting on Shumaker's lap.

 

At the time, Bennett, 23 years old himself, attacked Shumaker while he was playing pool, stabbing him in his back. The immediate result was Shumaker losing feeling in his legs while he was stabbed repeatedly in the abdomen, chest and back, seven times in all. In the trial that followed Bennett was acquitted by a jury of intent to murder, but found guilty of battery and carrying a concealed weapon. Sentenced to ten years in prison, ordered to pay restitution of $29,824 to Shumaker.  

Until he died at age 41, the once-muscled, hale and social Shumaker was wheel-chair bound. His younger brother who was an EMT had dropped Shumaker off at the bar before reporting to his ambulance shift. Ironically, he was the first to respond to the scene. Shumaker's brother Eric struggled with guilt as his older brother endured staph infections, sepsis, bedsores. His brother cycled in and out of nursing homes and he blamed himself for driving him to the bar that night. He died at age 28 of an opioid overdose.

There are over 106,000 Americans on the waiting list for a transplant, 17 of whom die daily while awaiting a transplanted organ. Bennett's doctors proposed the experimental procedure once the man was considered to be ineligible for a normal human heart transplant as a result of heart failure and irregular heartbeat. What also made  him ineligible was his past as a patient where he failed to follow doctors' orders and was inconsistent about taking prescribed medications.

Before his admission to hospital Bennett lived in a duplex next door to one of his three sisters, worked as a handyman and spent time with his five grandchildren, and his dog, Lucky. At his admission to hospital and before the first-in-the-world pig heart transplant into a human chest he had been bedridden for weeks in the hospital; there was no therapy that might alleviate his dying heart. And then the implant took place with doctors on tenterhooks over his survival potential.

 

This Monday their patient was breathing on his own, still connected to a heart-lung machine. A day later doctors took him off the heart-lung machine. By Wednesday he was able to speak. His new heart appears to be working well, exceeding his doctors' expectation.

Bennett became the first person to ever successfully receive a genetically modified pig heart transplant. AP

"My intent here is not to speak about my father's past. My intent is to focus on the groundbreaking surgery and my father's wish to contribute to the science and potentially save patient lives in the future."

"My Dad has never ever in his entire life talked to me about that [the event that occurred in 1988]. I will not say anything about it."

"This [his father as a private, selfless man, thinking of helping others] was something that made me proud as a son [to proceed with the transplant]. This tops everything, in terms of what makes me proud."

"He has a strong will and desire to live."

David Bennett Jr., physical therapist, North Carolina