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The first person to receive a pig kidney transplantation has died just two months after he underwent the groundbreaking ceremony routine .
Rick Slayman , a 62 - year - old from Weymouth , Massachusetts , had agenetically qualify pig kidney placed in his bodyas part of a four - hour , pioneer surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital on March 16 .
Years before getting a pig kidney, Slayman, pictured above, had already received a human kidney transplant that started to fail and had been on dialysis for years.
Slayman hadend - stage kidney diseaseand had previously incur a human kidney transplanting , which showed signs of failure after a few year . His doctors proposed the experimental pig bed kidney transplanting as Slayman was restarting dialysis and experience severe complications .
The doctors hop that the pig kidney could last yr , CNN report , but , as such a transplant has n’t been done before , there was uncertainty about how well it would take . Slayman died just weeks after his surgery , but his medical team says there ’s no evidence the transplant was related to Slayman ’s death .
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" The Mass General transplanting team is deeply saddened at the sudden loss of Mr. Rick Slayman , " the hospital shared in astatementon Saturday ( May 11 ) . " We have no indication that it was the resultant of his recent transplant . " The assertion did not detail Slayman ’s cause of dying .
As of March 2024 , more than 100,000 Americans are on the wait list for organ transplant , 89,000 of which require a kidney . Each sidereal day , 17 people on these lists die . graft genetically modified organs from animals into humans , a process known as xenotransplantation , is view as a promising newfangled wayto potentially address the shortageof uncommitted organs from human donors .
Before Slayman ’s procedure , scientists had only conducted data-based fuzz kidney transplantation inbrain - bushed harmonium donors , as aproof - of - construct for the surgeries . However , since then , another living patient has since received one — a 54 - yr - old who also received a heart heart along with the pig kidney .
The first soul to receive a slob electronic organ of any sort was a Maryland man who undergo the humans ’s first pig - heart transplant in 2022 . Hedied shortly afterthe surgery , likely as a event of being infected with a squealer computer virus that trigger an inflammatory response .
In Slayman ’s case , scientist usedCRISPR cistron - editingtechnology to qualify the genes of the donor pig , removing ace that could cue the humanimmune systemto flak the kidney and add one that could help prevent transplant rejection . The patient also simultaneously received antibody - establish treatments and immune - suppressing drug to help prevent organ rejection .
The kidney itself come from a fellowship called eGenesis , which previously successfully tested the transplant in monkeys . On average , the scamp lived foraround 176 day , or nearly six months , after surgeryin these experiment .
In the infirmary ’s statement , Slayman ’s family said they were grateful to spend his last few weeks with him .
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" [ The medical squad ’s ] enormous effort direct the xenotransplant give our family line seven more week with Rick , and our memories made during that time will remain in our minds and hearts , " they wrote .
" Millions of people worldwide have fall to know Rick ’s tarradiddle , " they added . " We felt — and still feel — comforted by the optimism he leave patients desperately waiting for a transplant . "
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