The Massachusetts man who was the recipient of the world’s first successful transplant of a genetically-edited pig kidney has died less than two months after the procedure.Richard Slayman, of Weymouth, underwent surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital on March 16 and received a pig kidney with 69 genomic edits.The 62-year-old was released from Mass General on April 3 after weeks of recovery and said he was leaving the hospital “with one of the cleanest bills of health I’ve had in a long time.
'Slayman, who had been living with Type 2 diabetes and hypertension for many years, had end-stage kidney disease at the time of the pig kidney transplant. He previously received a kidney transplant from a deceased human donor in December 2018 after being on dialysis seven years prior.His transplanted human kidney showed signs of failure approximately five years later, and Slayman resumed dialysis in May 2023.