Kidney transplant patient, surgeons advance organ transplantation with groundbreaking procedure

In mid-March 2024, surgeons from the transplant center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston successfully transplanted a genetically modified pig kidney into a 62-year old man with end-stage kidney disease. At the time, the patient was experiencing signs of kidney failure after receiving a kidney transplanted from a human donor five years prior.

In mid-May, the patient, Richard “Rick” Slayman, died. He was the first person in the world to receive a pig kidney transplant. There’s no clear indication that his death was the result of the transplant.

The Mass General transplant team released a statement calling Slayman “a beacon of hope to countless transplant patients worldwide” and expressing gratitude for his “trust and willingness to advance the field of xenotransplantation.” 

After his death, Slayman’s family explained that one reason he had the groundbreaking procedure was “to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive.” The family added, “His legacy will be one that inspires patients, researchers and health care professionals everywhere.”

There’s an urgent need to increase the kidney transplant rate, access and options since transplantation is the best treatment for people with chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) reported that 25,498 kidney transplants were performed in the United States in 2022, the first year that kidney transplants exceeded 25,000. But approximately 13 people die each day waiting for a kidney transplant. More than 92,000 people in the U.S. are on the national transplant list waiting for a kidney, according to the National Kidney Foundation. 

Read more about the groundbreaking kidney transplant procedure at Massachusetts General Hospital.