First Pig Kidney Transplant Recipient, Slayman Discharged From Hospital
The first man in the world to live with a pig kidney, Rick Slayman has been discharged by Massachusetts General Hospital, United States on Wednesday.
Recall, two weeks ago, Slayman reportedly became the first living person to receive such a transplant, according to the doctors and was said to be recovering well.
“He is recovering well and will continue to recuperate at home with his family,” the hospital said on X, formerly Twitter.
Moreover, in an health report shared by CNN, Slayman expressed his mood in a statement issued by the hospital, he said,
“This moment – leaving the hospital today with one of the cleanest bills of health I’ve had in a long time – is one I wished would come for many years. Now, it’s a reality and one of the happiest moments of my life.”
According to The Washington Post on Slayman’s health status, last month, the 62-year-old manager was said to have battled kidney disease for more than ten years.
He had gone on dialysis and survived a human kidney transplant in 2018 but had since grown desperately ill.
He was, however, advised to
try a pig kidney when he was diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease last year by his doctors.
His doctors said last month that they thought Slayman’s new kidney could last years but also acknowledged that there are many unknowns in animal-to-human transplants.
Slayman’s surgery is the third xenotransplant of a pig organ into a living human.
Doctors also recorded the first two hearts transplants into living patients that had run out of other transplant options but unfortunately, both patients died weeks after receiving their organs.
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CNN reports that every day, 17 people die in the U.S. waiting for an organ. Kidneys are the organ in shortest supply and the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network noted that roughly 27,000 kidneys were transplanted in 2023, but nearly 89,000 people were on the waitlist for those organs.
Slayman said he was grateful for the response to his surgery, especially from other patients who are waiting for a kidney transplant.
”Today marks a new beginning not just for me, but for them, as well,” Slayman said in the statement.
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