Months after undergoing the procedure, Richard “Rick” Slayman, who received a kidney transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital in March at the age of 62, passed away, according to his family and the hospital. Surgeons had expected the pig kidney to last for at least two years. The transplant team at Massachusetts General Hospital expressed deep sadness at Slayman's passing and extended condolences to his family, stating they had no indication that his death was a result of the transplant.
Slayman, from Weymouth, Massachusetts, was the first living person to undergo this procedure; previously, pig kidneys had only been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead donors. While two men had received heart transplants from pigs, both had died within months.
Slayman had a kidney transplant at the same hospital in 2018, but he returned to dialysis last year when signs of failure appeared. When complications from dialysis necessitated frequent procedures, his doctors suggested a pig kidney transplant. In a statement, Slayman's family expressed gratitude to his doctors, saying, "Their enormous efforts leading the xenotransplant gave our family seven more weeks with Rick, and our memories made during that time will remain in our minds and hearts."
The family also noted that Slayman underwent the surgery in part to provide hope for the thousands of people who need transplants to survive. "Rick accomplished that goal, and his hope and optimism will endure forever," the statement said. Xenotransplantation refers to healing human patients with cells, tissues, or organs from animals, a process that historically failed due to the human immune system immediately destroying foreign animal tissue. Recent attempts have involved pigs that have been modified so their organs are more humanlike.