First patient to get genetically modified pig kidney transplant dies
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The first living patient to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has died, the US hospital that carried out the procedure said
The first living patient to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has died, the US hospital that carried out the procedure said.
“Mass General is deeply saddened at the sudden passing of Mr. Rick Slayman. We have no indication that it was the result of his recent transplant,” the Boston hospital said in a statement issued late Saturday.
In a world first, surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital in March successfully transplanted the genetically edited pig kidney into Slayman, who was 62 years old at the time and suffering from end-stage kidney disease.
“Slayman will forever be seen as a beacon of hope to countless transplant patients worldwide and we are deeply grateful for his trust and willingness to advance the field of xenotransplantation,” the hospital statement said.
Organ shortages are a chronic problem around the world and the Boston hospital said in March that there were more than 1,400 patients on its waiting list for a kidney transplant.
The pig kidney used for the transplant was provided by a Massachusetts biotech company called eGenesis and had been modified to remove harmful pig genes and add certain human genes, according to the hospital.
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Slayman, who suffered from Type 2 diabetes and hypertension, had received a transplanted human kidney in 2018, but it began to fail five years later.
When the hospital announced the successful transplant in March, Slayman said he had agreed to the procedure “not only as a way to help (him), but a way to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive.”
In a statement posted on Mass General’s website, his family said while they were “deeply saddened about the sudden passing of our beloved Rick” they took “great comfort knowing he inspired so many.”
The family said they were “comforted by the optimism he provided patients desperately waiting for a transplant”.
Pig kidneys had been transplanted previously into brain-dead patients, but Slayman was the first living person to receive one.
Genetically modified pig hearts were transplanted in 2023 into two patients at the University of Maryland, but both lived less than two months.
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