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Massachusetts man who received first-ever pig kidney transplant dies at 62

Guardian

Pig kidney ‘xenotransplant’ patient dies two months later

First person to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant dies almost 2 months later

Independent

First person to have a genetically modified pig kidney transplant dies months later

Pig kidney transplant recipient dies

Rick Slayman, the first person to ever receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant, died roughly two months after he underwent the surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). MGH said there's "no indication" his death as due to the surgery.

nytimes

Slayman received a regular kidney transplant in 2018 but had to go back on dialysis last year due to complications. According to his family, the pig kidney operation, known as a "xenotransplant," gave them "seven more weeks" with him.

Slayman's pig kidney was provided by Cambridge, Mass.-based pharmaceutical company eGenesis, which used the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology to take out harmful pig genes and replace them with human genes.

ABC News

While the xenotransplant didn't give Slayman the predicted two additional years of kidney function, he was able to walk within days of the surgery and stop taking his thrice weekly, debilitating dialysis treatment.

New Atlas

Slayman had end-stage kidney disease, which impacts over 800K people in the US annually and a disproportionate number of Black people. Doctors are trying to use xenotransplants as there aren't enough Human kidneys to help the nearly 90K patients on the waiting list.

Slayman's surgery came just weeks before the second xenotransplant was administered to a 54-year-old Lisa Pisano, from New Jersey. Pisano, who's surgery included just one genetic alteration, had also received a mechanical heart transplant the week prior.

First Pig Kidney Transplant Patient Dies

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First Pig Kidney Transplant Patient Dies

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