Dhaniram Baruah | |
---|---|
Nationality | Indian |
Education | MD; Glasgow University; Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons of England |
Known for | First pig-to-human heart transplantation |
Medical career | |
Profession | Surgeon |
Field | Cardiac Surgery |
Institutions | University of Maryland Medical Center |
Sub-specialties | Cardiothoracic surgery Heart transplantation Lung transplantation Cardiac surgery |
Dhaniram Baruah is an Indian heart surgeon from Assam, known for his work in the field of xenotransplantation. He is popularly known as India's Pig Heart Doctor.[1] On 1 January 1997, he became the first heart surgeon in the world to transplant a pig's heart in a human body.[2] Although the recipient died subsequently, it was a precursor to the first successful pig-to-human heart transplant performed 25 years later by Bartley P. Griffith in January 2022.[3] While Griffith used a genetically modified pig's heart, Barua had transplanted a normal pig heart.[4] Barua is also the founder of Dr Dhaniram Baruah Heart Institute & Research Centre.[5] He can only communicate through hand gestures after a brain stroke left him unable to speak.[6]