Richard “Rick” Slayman had the transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital in March at the age of 62. Surgeons said they believed the pig kidney would last for at least two years.

The first recipient of a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has died nearly two months after he underwent the procedure, his family and the hospital that performed the surgery said Saturday.

Richard “Rick” Slayman had the transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital in March at the age of 62. Surgeons said they believed the pig kidney would last for at least two years.

The transplant team at Massachusetts General Hospital said in a statement it was deeply saddened by Slayman’s passing and offered condolences to his family. They said they didn’t have any indication that he died as a result of the transplant.

  • piefedderateddEnglish
    13•7 months ago

    Saw this article in local newspapers today with one notable exception. Found it in another article linked in the above apnews article.

    The most ambitious attempt so far came in January, when doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center transplanted a pig heart into a dying 57-year-old. David Bennett survived for two months, evidence that xenotransplantation was at least possible. But initial testing missed that the organ harbored an animal virus. What caused Bennett’s new heart to fail and whether that virus played any role still isn’t known, the Maryland researchers recently reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.