Just over two weeks after doctors placed a genetically edited kidney from a pig inside Richard Slayman, the 62-year-old is recovering at home and relishing “one of the happiest moments” of his life, according to a statement from the hospital that carried out the landmark four-hour surgery.
On March 16, Slayman became the first living person to receive such a transplant, according to doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
In a statement Wednesday, the hospital confirmed that Slayman had been discharged and was “recovering well.” The facility has credited “years of research, preclinical studies, and collaboration” for the successful surgery.
“This moment — leaving the hospital today with one of the cleanest bills of health I’ve had in a long time — is one I wished would come for many years,” Slayman said in a discharge statement released by the hospital. “Now, it’s a reality and one of the happiest moments of my life.”
Slayman, who works for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, battled kidney disease for more than a decade. He had gone on dialysis and survived a human kidney transplant in 2018 but had since grown desperately ill and was near despair, The Washington Post reported last month.
As doctors planned the milestone surgery, they were required to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration, which allowed the surgery under its “compassionate use” rules. The approval is granted in cases where a patient has a “serious or immediately life-threatening disease or condition” and there are no alternative treatments, according to the FDA.
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