A pig kidney transplant patient, Richard Slayman has lost his life to the cold hands of death two months after the operation. Although, the hospital that performed the surgery disclosed that it did not have any indication the transplant was the cause.
The first recipient of a genetically modified pig kidney transplant had the procedure carried out 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. On Saturday, his family and the hospital that performed the surgery confirmed Slayman’s death.
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Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) said on Sunday there was no indication his death was a result of the transplant.
Transplants of other organs from genetically modified pigs have failed in the past, but the operation on Mr Slayman was hailed as a historic milestone.
Meanwhile, the deceased was suffering from end-stage kidney disease before undergoing the operation.
In addition to kidney disease, Slayman also suffered from Type 2 diabetes and hypertension. In 2018, he had a human kidney transplant, but it began to fail after five years.
Following his pig kidney transplant on 16 March, his doctors confirmed he no longer needed dialysis after the new organ was said to be functioning well.
After his demise, the transplant team at the Massachusetts hospital said in a statement it was deeply saddened and offered condolences to his family.
“Slayman will forever be seen as a beacon of hope to countless transplant patients worldwide and we are deeply grateful for his trust and willingness to advance the field of xenotransplantation,” MGH said in a statement.
In a statement, Slayman’s family thanked his doctors. “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,” the statement said.
They said Slayman underwent the surgery in part to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive. “Rick accomplished that goal and his hope and optimism will endure forever.”
The relatives also said his story was an inspiration.
“To us, Rick was a kind-hearted man with a quick-witted sense of humor who was fiercely dedicated to his family, friends, and co-workers,” they added.
A look into what ‘Xenotransplant’ is
The transplantation of organs from one species to another is a growing field known as xenotransplantation.
So the surgeries Layman and Pisano went through were xenotransplants. and this procedure is a type of transplantation where an organ or tissue is transferred from one species to another.
The prefix “xeno-” means “foreign,” so a xenotransplant involves transplanting organs or tissues from a donor of a different species into a recipient of another species.
In a medical context, xenotransplantation usually refers to the use of animal organs or tissues by human recipients.
Xenotransplantation has the potential to address the shortage of human donor organs for transplantation and could provide life-saving treatments for patients with organ failure or chronic diseases.
However, this procedure had often failed in the past because the human body immediately rejected the foreign animal tissue. Recent surgeries have used genetically modified pigs so that their organs would be more similar to those of people.
While Slayman received the first pig kidney to be transplanted into a human, it is not the first pig organ to be used in a transplant procedure.
About a month after Slayman’s procedure, surgeons at NYU Langone Health in New York carried out a similar transplant on Lisa Pisano, who had suffered heart failure and end-stage kidney disease.
Two other patients have received pig heart transplants, but those procedures were unsuccessful as the recipients died a few weeks later.
In one case, there were signs the patient’s immune system had rejected the organ, which is a common risk in transplants.
More than 89,000 patients were on the national kidney waiting list as of March this year, according to a US health department website.
On average, 17 people die each day while waiting for an organ transplant.
