A patient who had a pig kidney ‘xenotransplant’ passes away two months later.
According to the Massachusetts transplant team, there is no evidence to suggest that Richard “Rick” Slayman’s death was caused by the transplantation of a genetically engineered kidney.
Approximately two months after the transplant, the first person to receive a kidney transplant from a genetically modified pig has passed away. The institution that carried out the operation has stated that it does not have any evidence to suggest that the transplant was the cause of death.
When Richard “Rick” Slayman was 62 years old, he had the transplant procedure at Massachusetts General Hospital in the month of March. Surgeons expressed their belief that the kidney from the pig will be viable for a minimum of two years. It was confirmed on Saturday that Slayman had passed away by both his family and the hospital that had done the operation.
A statement was released by the transplant team at the Massachusetts hospital, expressing their profound sorrow and extending their sympathies to his family through the statement.
In the history of the procedure, Slayman was the first living individual to undergo it. Prior to this, kidneys from pigs were temporarily transplanted into patients who were brain-dead for the purpose of conducting an experiment. Both of the guys who had heart transplants from pigs lost their lives after a few months after receiving the transplants.
With the words “porcine organ for transplant” printed on it, a container labeled “xenokidney”
Despite the fact that Slayman received a kidney transplant at the hospital in 2018, he was forced to return to dialysis in the previous year since the transplant showed signs of failing. After difficulties emerged during dialysis that required him to undergo multiple treatments, his doctors recommended that he receive a kidney transplant from a pig.
Slayman’s family expressed their gratitude to his doctor in a statement. Our family was able to spend seven additional weeks with Rick as a result of their tremendous efforts in guiding the xenotransplant, and the memories that we made during that time will linger in our minds and hearts forever, according to the statement.
They said that Slayman underwent the operation in part to give hope to the thousands of people who are in need of a transplant in order to preserve their lives. Rick was successful in achieving that objective, and his optimism and hope will last for all of eternity.
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The process of treating human patients with cells, tissues, or organs borrowed from animals is referred to as xenotransplantation. Due to the fact that the human immune system instantly destroyed foreign animal tissue, such efforts have been unsuccessful for a long time. Recently, there have been attempts made using pigs that have been altered in such a way that their organs are more similar to those of people.