Rick Slayman, two weeks after undergoing the procedure, was today released from the hospital as the inaugural living recipient of a genetically modified porcine kidney transplant.
As stated in a statement by Massachusetts General Hospital. The hospital announced on X (previously Twitter): “He is doing well and will continue to rest at home with his family.”
Manager Seeks Pig Kidney for End-Stage Disease
Slayman stated in a hospital statement, “This moment – departing the hospital today with one of the clearest medical bills I’ve received in a very long time – is one I’ve longed for for many years. It is currently an actuality and among the most joyful moments of my life.”
Slayman, a 62-year-old manager with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, had previously stated that when he was diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease last year, his doctors suggested he attempt a pig kidney.
His physicians stated a month ago that they believed Slayman’s new kidney could last for years, but acknowledged that animal-to-human transplants involve numerous unknowns.
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Grateful Slayman Receives Support from Kidney Transplant Waitlist Patients
This is the third time that a porcine organ has been xenotransplanted into a living human. Hearts were transplanted into two living patients who had exhausted all other transplant alternatives for the initial two transplants.
Special regulations governing the compassionate application of experimental therapies for patients in particularly dire circumstances authorized the transplantation of the organs. Both recipients of organs passed away weeks after their operations.
Slayman expressed gratitude for the reception of his surgery, particularly from patients awaiting kidney transplants.
The demand for organs significantly exceeds the supply that is at hand. Each day, seventeen individuals perish in the United States while awaiting an organ.
The kidney is the organ that is least abundant. Approximately 27,000 kidneys were transplanted in 2023, as reported by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network; however, there were nearly 89,000 individuals on the waiting list for those organs.
“Today signifies a fresh start for them as well as myself,” Slayman said in the statement.
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