Massachusetts General Hospital said Wednesday that the first recipient of a gene-edited pig kidney receiver has been discharged from the facility and will be recovering from the transplant, as per a CNN report.
Rick Slayman received the pig kidney last month after the organ failure of his previous kidney, which he had received from another fellow human.
The 62-year-old patient had said that in 2018 he received a kidney transplant from another human. When that organ failed, he acted upon the doctor’s suggestion.
“The organ was exactly the same size as a human kidney,” said Dr Tatsuo Kawai, who conducted the operation, and is also a director of the Legorreta Center for Clinical Transplant Tolerance on March 21.
“He is recovering well and will continue to recuperate at home with his family,” the hospital’s statement read on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Slayman said Wednesday in the statement issued by the hospital: “This moment — leaving the hospital today with one of the cleanest bills of health I’ve had in a long time — is one I wished would come for many years. Now, it’s a reality and one of the happiest moments of my life.”
“Today marks a new beginning not just for me, but for them, as well,” Slayman said in the statement.
It is the third time that pig organs have been transplanted into humans. The earlier two were heart transplants but unfortunately, both the receivers died.
There is a shortage of organ donors in the US and around 17 people die every day due to such failures.
