The first living patient to get a genetically engineered pig kidney transplant Rick Slayman has died barely a month after being discharged from the hospital.
"Mass General is deeply saddened at the sudden passing of Mr. Rick Slayman. We have no indication that it was the result of his recent transplant," the Boston hospital said in a statement issued late Saturday.
Surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital performed a world-first transplant of a genetically altered pig kidney into a 62-year-old man with end-stage renal disease.
Richard "Rick" Slayman got the organ in March, following a four-hour operation at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, USA.
The 62-year-old had end-stage renal failure, a chronic condition in which the kidneys can no longer work on their own.
"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," the hospital statement said.
According to the hospital, the pig kidney used in the transplant was donated by eGenesis, a Massachusetts biotech company, and had been tweaked to eliminate detrimental pig genes while adding specific human genes.
Slayman, who suffered from Type 2 diabetes and hypertension, had a received human kidney in 2018, but it failed five years later.
