First Patient With a Genetically Modified “Pig Kidney” Transplant Passes Away After Two Months; Why Did He Die So Soon?

The person who was the first to get a kidney donation from a genetically modified pig has died, almost two months after the surgery, his family and the hospital that did the surgery said on Saturday.

It was done on Richard “Rick” Slayman at Massachusetts General Hospital in March. He is 62 years old. Doctors said they thought the pig kidney would last at least two years. In a statement, the transplant team at Massachusetts General Hospital said they were very sorry to hear about Slayman’s death and sent their respects to his family. They told them there was no proof that he died because of the transplant.

The man from Weymouth, Massachusetts, was the first person still alive to have the surgery. Before, kidneys from pigs were briefly transplanted into donors who were brain-dead. Two guys got heart transplants from pigs, but they both died within a few months.

In 2018, Slayman got a new kidney at the hospital, but it started to fail last year, so he had to go back on dialysis. When problems with his dialysis meant that he had to have regular procedures, his doctors suggested that he get a kidney from a pig.

The family of Slayman thanked his doctors in a statement.

They worked very hard to make the xenotransplant happen, which gave our family seven more weeks with Rick. The memories we made during that time will stay with us forever, the statement said. They said that one reason Slayman had the surgery was to give hope to the thousands of people who need transplants to live.

The statement said, “Rick reached his goal, and his hope and optimism will last forever.”

Xenotransplantation is the use of cells, tissues, or organs from animals to help people get better. These kinds of efforts haven’t worked for a long time because our immune systems destroy alien animal tissue right away. In recent efforts, pigs whose organs have been changed to look more like those in humans have been used.

There are more than 100,000 people waiting for a transplant across the country. Most of them need a kidney transplant, and every year, thousands of them die before their turn comes up.