A New Hope for Kidney Patients: The Pig Kidney Breakthrough

A big step has been taken in the world of medicine. A man from New Hampshire lived with a pig kidney for 271 days. This is the longest anyone has ever survived with an animal organ inside them. The man, Tim Andrews, is 67 years old. He got the kidney as part of a special test at Mass General Brigham. The kidney was changed using genes to make it work better in humans. The kidney had to be taken out on October 23 because it stopped working well. Now, Andrews is back on dialysis and waiting for another kidney transplant. His doctors say he is very brave and has helped a lot of people with kidney problems. This news is exciting for scientists. They want to use animal organs to help people who need transplants. There are not enough human organs for everyone who needs them. More than 100, 000 people in the United States are waiting for a new organ. Many of them need kidneys. Every year, thousands of people die before they get a new organ. Before this, other pig organ transplants did not last very long. But now, doctors are choosing healthier patients for these tests. This seems to be helping. Earlier this year, a woman in Alabama lived with a pig kidney for 130 days. Andrews' case shows that this kind of transplant can last even longer. Andrews had a hard time finding a matching kidney because of his blood type. He decided to join the test and worked hard to get healthy enough for the surgery. In June, the same team did another pig kidney transplant in another man from New Hampshire. That man is doing well. There will be one more transplant in this test later this year. Two companies, eGenesis and United Therapeutics, are also working on bigger tests for pig kidney transplants. Doctors in China have also had some success with pig organ transplants. They did a pig kidney transplant earlier this year and a pig liver transplant that lasted 38 days.