World-First Operation Transplants Pig Kidney Into Human Patient

A 62-year-old Boston man has successfully undergone a landmark medical procedure, The New York Times reported. Surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital transplanted into him the kidney of a genetically modified pig, posing a great hope for the roughly 800,000 Americans who are living with kidney failure.

Richard Slayman, who works as a transportation supervisor for the state of Massachusetts, was on dialysis for seven years following his kidney failure in 2011. In 2018, he was given a human kidney. However, the transplant failed within five years and bestowed Slayman with further medical complications, including congestive heart failure.

When Slayman resumed dialysis last year, he immediately needed to be rehospitalized as his blood vessels began to clot and fail. Dr. Winfred Williams, associate chief of the nephrology division at Massach General and Slayman’s primary kidney doctor, told NYT that giving Slayman a pig’s kidney was a last-ditch effort at saving the patient’s life.

Faced with an interminable wait for another human kidney, Slayman “was growing despondent,” Williams recalled. “He said, ‘I just can’t go on like this. I can’t keep doing this.’ I started to think about extraordinary measures we could take.”

According to Williams, Slayman “would have had to wait five to six years for a human kidney,” a period he “would not have been able to survive.” Only 25,000 kidney transplants are conducted each year. The waiting list numbers over 100,000, with many patients dying before they’re selected.

Though initially skeptical about receiving a pig’s kidney, Slayman eventually agreed. “I saw it not only as a way to help me, but a way to provide hope for thousands of people who need a transplant to survive,” he said in a statement issued by the hospital.

Slayman is a Black man, which is significant because Black patients suffer extremely high rates of end-stage kidney disease. A 2021 report from Harvard Health noted that there are “5,855 cases per million for African Americans, compared to 1,704 cases per million for white Americans.”

Transplanting animal kidneys into humans, a process called Xenotransplantation, “could solve an intractable problem in the field—the inadequate access of minority patients to kidney transplants,” according to Williams.

The four-hour procedure was performed under a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) protocol known as “compassionate use provision,” which grants unapproved treatments to patients suffering from life-threatening illnesses. Under this provision, new drugs that suppress one’s immune system and prevent organ rejection were also utilized.

So far, Slayman’s transplant has been a terrific success. His new kidney began making urine and filtering out creatine within hours of the operation, and his condition rapidly improved. Slayman is already navigating the hospital’s corridors, and doctors expect he’ll soon be sent home.

“He looks like his own self. It’s remarkable,” Williams marveled.

The doctor praised his patient’s decision to go public about undergoing the breakthrough procedure. “He’s remarkably courageous to step forward,” Williams said. “Hats off to him. He’s making a huge contribution with this.”