A 62-year-old man has made history by successfully recovering from a groundbreaking operation where he received a pig’s kidney, the first of its kind in the world. The surgery took place on Saturday, March 16, at Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States. The four-hour operation was deemed a success by the hospital, and the man is currently recovering well.
This achievement marks a historic milestone in the field of medicine, as it opens up possibilities for organ transplantation between different species. The hospital believes that this could be a potential solution to the global shortage of organs for transplant.
In 2018, the man had received a human kidney transplant due to kidney disease. However, the transplanted organ stopped working after five years, leading him to return to dialysis. Faced with a limited future outlook, he decided to undergo an organ transplant with a genetically modified pig kidney as a last resort.
The man expressed his hope that this pioneering surgery not only benefits him but also provides hope to others in need of organ transplants. This breakthrough comes after a genetically modified pig kidney was successfully transplanted into a brain-dead human in 2021, with previous instances of pig hearts being transplanted into humans in 2022.