The man that received the first genetically modified pig's heart transplant has been slammed as "not deserving it" as reports emerged he left a man paralysed by stabbing him seven times.
David Bennett Sr., 57, made history on January 7 when he became the world's first successful transplant recipient of its kind in Maryland, Baltimore.
Bennett underwent an 8-hour surgery as a last resort after being denied a human heart, The New York Times reported.
"It was either die or do this transplant," Bennett said before the surgery, according to officials at the University of Maryland Medical Center. "I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice."
But news has now emerged that in 1988, Bennett stabbed Ed Shumaker seven times at a bar in Maryland, reportedly after he saw the man flirting with his ex-wife.
Shumaker suffered blows to his back, abdomen and chest and was paralysed for 19-years before suffering a stroke in 2005 and dying two years later aged 40.
Bennett was sentenced to 10-years in jail but didn't serve the full term and was ordered to pay the family $3.4 million in a civil suit, which they claimed they never received.
The sister of the victim, Leslie Shumaker Downey, said she understood the importance of the transplant but wished it had gone to a "deserving recipient".
“The devastation and the trauma, for years and years, that my family had to deal with," Downey told the Washington Post. "Now [David Bennett] gets a second chance with a new heart - but I wish, in my opinion, it had gone to a deserving recipient."
Downey posted on Facebook condemning Bennett and explained what he'd done to her family.
"David Bennett got 10 years, only served 5 years. My brother won a $3.4 million lawsuit against Bennett and Bennett worked under the table, married someone putting everything in her name, so my brother would not ever receive a penny from the lawsuit,' she said.
Downey told the BBC that it should've been the doctors that received the credit, not Bennett.
"For the medical community, the advancement of it and being able to do something like that is great and it's a great advancement but they're putting Bennett in the storylines portraying him as being a hero and a pioneer and he's nothing of that sort," she said.
"I think the doctors who did the surgery should be getting all the praise and not Bennett."
The University of Maryland Medical Center would not disclose if they were aware of Bennett's criminal history, but said he came to the hospital in "dire need" and doctors made the decision based "solely on his medical records", according to the Washington Post.
Dr Bartley Griffith, who led the transplant team at the University of Maryland Medical Center, said the heart had "exceeded our expectations".
"The new heart is still a rock star," Dr Griffith told USA Today. "It seems to be reasonably happy in its new host … It has more than exceeded our expectations."
