The short version
- Lisa Pisano (54) from New Jersey received a historic transplant of a pig kidney at NYU Langone in New York.
- Pisano had heart and kidney failure but was too ill to be on the waiting list for a human organ.
- She is the first woman to have a pig kidney transplanted.
- Over 100,000 people in the US stand in the donor queue, and thousands die while waiting for surgery.
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The 54-year-old from New Jersey stared death in the eye – and was desperate.
With both heart and kidney failure, she was simply too ill to be on the waiting list for a new organ.
This month she nevertheless went under the knife – and had surgery to insert a pig’s kidney.
– I said “yes” because I had no other choice, she says to the American news agency AP.
The operation, which was carried out at NYU Langone in New York, is historic.
Pisano is the first woman to have a pig kidney transplanted.
– I took a chance. At worst, if this didn’t work, then maybe it will help the next person who needs it. Or the person after that again, she says.
And thanks to a new mechanical heart pump – which she had surgery on a few days earlier – her heart continues to beat.
When the AP visited the woman after the operation, she showed pictures of the dog on her phone.
– I want to spend time with my grandchildren, and run around with the dog, says the 54-year-old about the future.
Director Robert Montgomery at the hospital says that the new organ immediately started producing urine.
Which is exactly what a kidney is supposed to do.
– She was excited. She knew that this was experimental and that we could in no way guarantee success. But she wanted to try, he says.
– When she entered the hospital she was so ill that she had a couple of heart attacks. She was so close to death, says the director.
The hospital states that Pisano is now in good shape after the operation. She has already taken her first steps afterwards – with the help of a walker.
– I have been given a second chance, and I took it, says Pisano.
– Thanks to the operation, I get to see my wife smile again, says her husband Todd, according to AP.
It has been less than a month since the very first patient had a pig kidney operated on.
Then a 62-year-old man had one of these operated on at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
– I just have to congratulate them. When heart function is poor, it is difficult to carry out a kidney transplant, says surgeon Tatsuo Kawai about the operation in New York.
It was Kawai who carried out the first pig transplant on 62-year-old Boston.
He points out that his patient was in much better shape when the operation was carried out.
In the US, over 100,000 people are in the donor queue. Thousands of them die while waiting.
Several biotech companies are now working to genetically modify pigs so that their organs are more similar to ours, AP writes.
The hope is that they can be transplanted into humans without the immune system destroying them.
In the first instance, organs have been transplanted into brain-dead people – to see if it can be carried out in practice.
Among other things, such an operation took place in 2023, according to AP.
Complained of abdominal pain, the operation he had to undergo set a record. Watch video:
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