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Two months ago, Richard Slayman of Boston became the first person to get a kidney transplant from a pig that had been genetically altered.
When the 62-year-old received a kidney from the pig that had undergone 69 genomic changes, he was suffering from end-stage kidney disease. Experts predicted that this would mark the beginning of a new era in organ transplantation.
Regretfully, on April 6, Mr. Slayman was discharged from the hospital with a diagnosis of “recovering well.” He tragically passed away on Saturday.
As things stand, neither the family of Mr. Slayman nor any of the medical professionals have made any indication that the transplant had anything to do with his passing.
Under the Expanded Access Protocol’s “compassionate use” clearance, which is only applied when patients with life-threatening conditions have no other options, the four-hour procedure was carried out at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).
Mr. Slayman endured years of suffering from Type 2 diabetes and hypertension before to receiving a definitive diagnosis of end-stage renal failure.
After starting dialysis in 2011, he was eventually added to the waiting list for kidney donors and was given a human kidney transplant in December 2018.
When the donor kidney began to fail five years later, Mr. Slayman was placed back on dialysis in May 2023.
Then, throughout this second round of dialysis, he had to have surgical revision and de-clotting every two weeks to address clotting issues.
Doctors recommended attempting a pig kidney transplant for Mr. Slayman because of these ongoing issues and his rapidly declining kidney function.
Just as he was about to leave the hospital following the transplant, he experienced a fear related to organ rejection, but doctors were able to promptly handle it because it was a typical form of rejection.
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