American scientists have, for the first time, transplanted a living person with a pig kidney. Until now, pig kidneys had been transplanted into brain-dead people who could not give their consent. They have now been transplanted into a person who was in the final stages of kidney disease.
The doctors of the Massachusetts Hospital in Boston performed the unique operation. Before transplantation, the pig organ was genetically modified by removing some of the pig’s genes and inserting human genes. The whole operation took 4 hours. If the kidney can be adapted, such procedures could be a breakthrough in transplantation and a solution to the world’s organ shortage. It is believed that obtaining organs from genetically modified pigs will become a common practice in the future. According to the doctors, 62-year-old patient Rick Suleiman feels well after the operation and will soon be discharged.
