(GoRealNewsNow.com) – A major medical breakthrough has occurred, which some will find bizarre, but that may be a lifesaver for thousands of patients in the United States and even more globally.
Specifically, on Thursday, doctors in Boston shared that they had successfully transplanted a kidney from a genetically changed pig into a living person for the first time.
Richard Slayman, a 62-year-old man from Weymouth, Massachusetts, who has been battling a severe form of kidney disease, was the recipient of this new kidney last Saturday during a surgery that lasted four hours at Massachusetts General Hospital. The hospital has reported that Richard is doing well after the surgery and should be leaving the hospital shortly.
In his own words, Richard mentioned, “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.”
This operation is part of a rapidly advancing effort to use pigs that have been genetically altered to provide organs like kidneys, livers, and hearts to meet the urgent need for more organ transplants.
Dr. Tatsuo Kawai, a leading figure at the hospital for transplant processes, expressed his optimism by stating, “Our hope is that this transplant approach will offer a lifeline to millions of patients worldwide who are suffering from kidney failure.”
The kidney used in this transplant was sourced from a pig specially engineered by eGenesis, a company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The pigs at eGenesis have been genetically modified in 69 different ways to make their organs safe and suitable for human transplant. This includes changes to stop a pig virus that could harm humans, removing specific pig genes, and adding human ones to ensure the organs can work in human bodies.
Mike Curtis, the CEO of eGenesis, praised the patient’s bravery and the significance of this step forward in transplant science, saying, “This represents a new frontier in medicine and demonstrates the potential of genome engineering to change the lives of millions of patients.”
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