American patient Lisa Pisano, who received a pig kidney transplant along with an implanted device to keep her heart beating, died this week, her surgeon announced.
Pisano was close to death from kidney and heart failure when surgeons at NYU Langone Health performed the dramatic pair of surgeries in April. Although she initially seemed to be recovering well, 47 days later, doctors had to remove the pig kidney and put her back on dialysis after the organ was damaged by her heart medications.
Despite the dialysis and implanted heart pump, Pisano eventually entered hospice care and died on Sunday, said NYU Langone transplant surgeon Dr Robert Montgomery.
Montgomery praised Pisano’s bravery for attempting the xenotransplantation, saying she had helped “bring us closer to realising a future where someone does not have to die for another person to live”.
AP reports in The Independent that Pisano was the second patient ever to receive a kidney from a gene-edited pig. The first, Richard Slayman, received his at Massachusetts General Hospital and died in early May, nearly two months later. Doctors said he died of pre-existing heart disease, not as a result of the transplant.
In addition to the two pig kidney experiments, the University of Maryland also transplanted pig hearts into two men who were out of other options; both died within months.
What doctors learned from those attempts, along with research in donated bodies, has them hoping to begin formal clinical trials some time next year with patients who aren't quite so sick.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Pig kidney removed from transplant patient after complications
First combined heart pump and pig kidney transplant
Genetically engineered pigs put xenotransplantation back in the spotlight