Patient Richard Slayman, a 62-year-old from Weymouth, Massachusetts, was the first human to receive a rene transplanted from a pig genetically modified. The operation was performed at the Boston hospital which declared the patient’s discharge. The most important thing is that his new kidney is now functional.
Pig kidney transplant on a living patient, the first case in the world in Boston. And the results are promising
The story
Before receiving his new kidney in a four-hour operation on March 16, Richard Slayman had been battling terminal kidney disease for some time. In 2018 he had already undergone a kidney transplant from a donor who died last year, but the organ stopped working, forcing the man back to daily dialysis. A few weeks later, the hospital announced that the new kidney was functioning well without the need for dialysis.
At the time of his resignation, Slayman defined this moment as: «one of the happiest moments of my life. I can’t wait to start spending time with my family, friends and loved ones again, free from the burden of dialysis that has oppressed my life for years.”
The new kidney
The kidney used to treat the 62-year-old came from a pig. To make it compatible with a human, it was genetically modified by the pharmaceutical company eGenesis of Cambridge, Massachusetts, which said it removed harmful pig genes and added some human genes to increase its compatibility with the human body.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED