US man who received first-ever modified pig kidney transplant dies

The world’s first patient with a transplanted pig kidney has died almost two months after the operation.

In March, Massachusetts General Hospital transplanted the genetically-edited pig kidney into Rick Slayman, a 62-year-old man living with end-stage kidney



disease.

The operation was a milestone in xenotransplantation, the transplantation of organs or tissues from one species to another — as a potential solution to the worldwide organ shortage, the hospital said at the time. Slayman’s death was not linked to the transplant, the hospital said on Saturday.