A statement from Massachusetts General Hospital announced that the world’s first patient to receive a pig kidney transplant “has been discharged in the best health condition ever observed.”
Rick Slayman, 62, underwent transplantation of a genetically modified pig kidney at Massachusetts General Hospital on March 16.
After a period of hospitalization for monitoring and treatment, doctors confirmed that Slayman’s condition had stabilized enough for discharge, noting that he was released “in the best health state ever seen” for such a case.
Previously, he had received a human donor kidney in 2018 after seven years on dialysis.
However, five years later, the transplanted kidney began to fail, forcing him to return to dialysis and face several complications, including arterial blood clots. This led him to consent to the pig kidney transplant when the medical team proposed it.
Slayman’s pig-to-human kidney transplant operation lasted four hours, and the transplanted organ began producing urine immediately afterward.
To date, the kidney has been functioning normally, and he no longer requires dialysis.
Researchers removed harmful pig genes from the donor kidney and inactivated porcine retroviruses that could potentially infect humans. They also added human genes to improve compatibility with any potential recipient.
Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital believe that Slayman’s new kidney may last for many years, though they acknowledge that much remains unknown in the field of xenotransplantation—transplanting organs from animals to humans.