In March, a Boston hospital performed a four-hour transplant on Richard “Rick” Slayman, 62.
It was the first time a kidney from a genetically altered pig had been given to a living person. According to surgeons, the organ should survive for at least two years.
Slayman’s family declared his passing yesterday and expressed gratitude to the medical professionals for their “enormous efforts” in performing the world’s first surgery.
They said that they had “seven more weeks with Rick, and our memories made during that time will remain in our minds and hearts” thanks to the xenotransplant, an animal-to-human transplant.
There was no indication that his death was related to the transplant, according to the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) transplant team.
Slayman, a resident of Weymouth, Massachusetts, received a kidney transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in 2018, but it failed, so he had to return to dialysis last year.
