First Pig Kidney Transplant Patient Leaves Hospital
The first man who received a genetically modified kidney transplant from a pig has been discharged from hospital, two weeks after the ground-breaking surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).
The news was shared in a press release by MGH, which is Harvard Medical School's largest teaching hospital in the US city of Boston.
In the release, the hospital said the patient, According to the release, 62-year-old Richard "Rick" Slayman of Weymouth, Massachusetts, had been battling end-stage kidney disease and required an organ transplant.
His doctors successfully transplanted a genetically-edited pig kidney into his body over a four-hour-long surgery on 16 March.
Although organ transplants from genetically modified pigs have failed in the past, the success of this procedure has been hailed by scientists as a historic milestone in the field of transplantation and sprouted new hope in new medicine.
According to the hospital's report, Mr Slayman's kidney is now functioning well and he is no longer on dialysis.
In a statement, Mr Slayman expressed his delight, stating that being able to leave hospital to go home was "one of the happiest moments" of his life.
"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 added that "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."
In 2018, he had a human kidney transplant from a deceased donor, however it began to fail last year, and doctors raised the idea of a pig kidney transplant.
The new pig kidney he received was modified by Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company eGenesis to remove "harmful pig genes and add certain human genes to improve its compatibility with humans," it said.
For the procedure, the hospital said it drew from its history as being behind the world's first successful human organ transplant - a kidney - in 1954, as well as research it had conducted with eGenesis on xenotransplantation (interspecies organ transplants) over the past five years.
The Food and Drug Administration gave the green light for the procedure, offering a sole Expanded Access Protocol, also known as compassionate use, typically reserved for patients facing life-threatening conditions, granting them access to experimental treatment.
The team spearheading the transplant hailed it as a landmark advancement, potentially alleviating the global shortage of organs, particularly benefiting ethnic minority groups who are disproportionately affected.
Winfred Williams, the physician overseeing Mr. Slayman's case at MGH, emphasized the transformative potential of this breakthrough, suggesting that an ample supply of organs resulting from this technological leap could substantially address health disparities and offer optimal treatment for kidney failure to all patients in need.
Data from the United Network for Organ Sharing, a US non-profit, indicates that over 100,000 Americans are in need of a lifesaving organ transplant.
