First Pig Kidney Transplant Patient Leaves Hospital

The first pig kidney transplant patient leaves hospital after a successful surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

The first man to receive a kidney transplant from a pig that has been genetically altered has been released from the hospital. Two weeks after the groundbreaking surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the 62-year-old was sent home on Wednesday.

Transplanting organs from genetically altered pigs has not always worked. However, scientists have praised the procedure’s current success as a historic turning point in the history of transplantation.

The news was released by MGH, the largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the US city of Boston, in a press release on Wednesday.

Richard “Rick” Slayman of Weymouth, Massachusetts, was diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease and needed an organ transplant, according to the hospital’s press release.

On March 16, his doctors performed a successful four-hour surgery to transplant a genetically altered pig kidney into his body.

They said that Mr. Slayman is no longer receiving dialysis because his kidney is now operating normally.

Being able to leave the hospital and return home was described as “one of the happiest moments” of Mr. Slayman’s life in a statement.

“I’m excited to resume spending time with my family, friends, and loved ones free from the burden of dialysis that has affected my quality of life for many years.”

He received a human kidney transplant from a deceased donor in 2018, but it started to fail last year, so the doctors considered using a kidney from a pig.

“I saw it not only as a way to help me, but a way to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive,” he stated.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company eGenesis altered the new pig kidney he was given, removing “harmful pig genes and adding certain human genes to improve its compatibility with humans,” according to the company’s statement.

The hospital claimed that the procedure was inspired by its history of performing the first successful human organ transplant in history—a kidney transplant in 1954—as well as by research it had carried out on xenotransplantation, or interspecies organ transplants, over the previous five years in collaboration with eGenesis.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the procedure and provided a single Expanded Access Protocol, or compassionate use, which allows patients with life-threatening conditions to receive experimental treatment.

The transplant team celebrated the procedure as a historic move that may offer a way to address the global organ shortage, which disproportionately affects people from ethnic minority communities.

“An abundant supply of organs resulting from this technological advance may go far to finally achieve health equity and offer the best solution to kidney failure – a well-functioning kidney – to all patients in need,” said Winfred Williams, the MGH doctor who treated Mr.

A life-saving organ transplant is required for over 100,000 Americans, according to data from the US non-profit United Network for Organ Sharing.

In contrast, there were just under 23,500 donors in 2023—both living and deceased.

Kidneys are the most frequently required organ for a transplant, with an estimated 17 Americans losing their lives while awaiting an organ every day in the US.

Although this is the first pig kidney to be transplanted into a human, pig organs have long been utilized in transplant surgeries.

Two other patients had heart transplants from pigs, but those surgeries didn’t work out because the recipients passed away a few weeks later.

One patient had indications that the organ had been rejected by their immune system, which is a common risk associated with organ transplants.

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