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Pig-Heart Transplant Patient Not 'Deserving' Due To Criminal Past, Victim's Family Says

A man who made history as the world's first pig-heart transplant recipient was convicted of stabbing a man in the 1980s, making him undeserving of the transplant, the victim's family tells the Washington Post.

Pig-Heart Transplant Recipient David Bennett Sr.

Pig-Heart Transplant Recipient David Bennett Sr.

Photo Credit: UMD School of Medicine

David Bennett Sr., 57, received a genetically modified pig-heart to replace his own after he was diagnosed with terminal heart disease. Thirty-four years earlier, Bennett Sr. stabbed Edward Schumaker multiple times, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, The Post says.

"He gets a second chance with a new heart — but I wish, in my opinion, it had gone to a deserving recipient,” Leslie Shumaker Downey, the sister of Edward told the Washington Post. 

When he was 23 years old, Bennett Sr., attacked Shumaker during a round of pool after his wife at the time sat on Schumaker's lap. Court testimony shows that Bennett Sr., stabbed Shumaker seven times and then fled, triggering a high-speed chase by police that ended with his arrest.

He was later convicted by a jury of battery and carrying a concealed weapon, Bennett Sr. was also ordered to pay $29,824 in restitution and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was released in 1994 after serving six years. 

Edward Schumaker, meanwhile, went on to spend two decades in a wheelchair and suffer a stroke that left him impaired. He eventually passed away at the age of 40 in 2007.

Click here for more from the Washington Post.

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