The first man to ever receive a pig kidney transplant has died at the age of 62.
Rick Slayman, who was the first living man to receive a genetically edited pig kidney transplant died months after receiving the surgery.
Slayman died last year but the story is currently making headlines.
According to CoPilot AI: The groundbreaking procedure took place at Massachusetts General Hospital on March 21, 20241. Unfortunately, Rick Slayman passed away approximately two months after the transplant.
After initially receiving the surgery, surgeons at the Massachusetts General Hospital where Slayman received the transplant initially stated the transplant would last for at least two years.
In a statement, Massachusetts General Hospital gave its condolences to Slayman’s family but shared they had no “indication” the transplant led to Slayman’s death.
The family of Slayman, in a press release, thanked the surgeons and shared, “Their enormous efforts leading the xenotransplant gave our family seven more weeks with Rick, and our memories made during that time will remain in our minds and hearts.”
First living patient to receive genetically modified pig kidney dead at 62, weeks after historic transplant https://t.co/0VxdgUJqIU pic.twitter.com/MjcDmvpbEa
— New York Post (@nypost) May 12, 2024
Per AP:
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.
The Weymouth, Massachusetts, man was the first living person to have the procedure. Previously, pig kidneys had been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead donors. Two men received heart transplants from pigs, although both died within months.
In September of 2023, The University of Maryland Medical Center transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into Lawrence Faucette.
Second pig heart transplant patient dies six weeks after rare surgery
Lawrence Faucette, a 58-year-old man with end-stage heart disease, died Monday, more than a month after surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center successfully transplanted a pig’s heart into him,… pic.twitter.com/ebbKrLm1fS
— Instablog9ja (@instablog9ja) November 1, 2023
Faucette later died on October 31, 2023, which was only six months after the transplant surgery.
