The death of the first patient to receive a pig kidney transplant
The patient who underwent the first kidney transplant from a genetically modified pig to a living person has died, the hospital that performed this operation announced in a statement.
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston said in a statement, “We are deeply saddened by the sudden death of Rick Solomon. We have no indications that his death is related to the kidney transplant that he recently underwent.”
Last March, surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital were able to transplant for the first time the kidney of a genetically modified pig into a live patient, 62-year-old Richard Solomon, who was suffering from chronic kidney failure.
The hospital said, “Suleiman will remain a beacon of hope for a large number of organ transplant patients around the world, and we are very grateful for his trust and his efforts to advance the field of organ transplantation.”
The shortage of organ availability is a problem around the world, and Boston Hospital indicated in March that there were 1,400 patients on the waiting list for kidney transplants at Massachusetts General Hospital alone.
The hospital explained that the pig kidney, which was used in the transplantation process, was provided by eGenesis, a biotechnology company, and was genetically modified to remove harmful genes and add some human genes.
In 2018, Suleiman, who suffered from type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, underwent a human kidney transplant, but it stopped working after five years and the patient was now undergoing dialysis.
#death #patient #undergo #pig #kidney #transplant