Doctors Transplant Pig Kidney Into Living Person

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Boston doctors transplanted a pig kidney into a 62 year old man

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Massachusetts General Hospital said it's the first time a genetically modified pig kidney has been transplanted into a living person. Previously, pig kidneys have been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead donors. Also, two men received heart transplants from pigs, although both died within months.

The experimental transplant was done at the Boston hospital on Saturday. The patient, Richard "Rick" Slayman of Weymouth, Massachusetts, is recovering well and is expected to be discharged soon, doctors said Thursday.

Slayman had a kidney transplant at the hospital in 2018, but had to go back on dialysis last year when it showed signs of failure. When dialysis complications arose, his doctors suggested a pig kidney transplant, he said in a statement released by the hospital.

"I saw it not only as a way to help me, but a way to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive," said Slayman.

Of course, if it was me I'd probably make a few jokes at my own expense  in my statement