The Day I Held a Heart: My 7th Grade Pig Heart Dissection
ACADEMIC
I’ll never forget the moment I held a real pig heart in my hands.
It was 7th-grade science class, and we were doing a dissection lab. I knew it was going to be interesting, but I didn’t expect it to change something in me. As soon as we opened the chest and I saw the actual heart, the size, the texture, the veins, I wasn’t grossed out like some people. I was fascinated.
We traced the chambers, the aorta, the valves. I remember thinking: this is where life begins and ends. That one moment made everything I had read in textbooks feel alive and real. It wasn’t just about diagrams anymore. It was about something beating, pumping, keeping a body alive. I knew then that I didn’t just want to study hearts. I wanted to work with them. Fix them. Understand them fully.
That’s one of the first moments I seriously knew I wanted to become a heart surgeon.
From Lab Table to Real Research: Pig Hearts in Human Medicine?
What’s even more amazing is that the pig heart I dissected back then connects to something happening in real medicine today, xenotransplantation. That’s when an organ from one species (like a pig) is transplanted into a human. Sounds impossible, right? But it’s not science fiction anymore.
In January 2022, doctors at the University of Maryland performed the first-ever genetically modified pig heart transplant into a human patient. The man lived for two months, not a cure, but a huge step. That kind of research is helping solve the biggest challenge in organ transplants: there just aren’t enough human donors.
Pigs are being studied because their heart size and structure are similar to ours. Scientists are working to “edit” pig genes so human immune systems won’t reject their organs. It’s one of the most exciting breakthroughs in medical science, and it started with the same kind of heart I held in 7th grade.
Sources
University of Maryland School of Medicine. UM Faculty Perform Second Historic Pig Heart Transplant. Read Article
What I Took Away From That Experience
That day in science class wasn’t just a cool lab. It was a turning point.
It taught me that:
Medicine is hands-on, not just memorizing facts. Curiosity and courage are part of becoming a doctor. What I learn now, even in middle school, connects to real research happening today. Now that I’m building TeentoMD.com and planning my path toward becoming a heart surgeon, I look back at that pig heart and realize it was my very first lesson in cardiology, and maybe even in empathy, too.