A third person has received a transplant

Towana Looney’s new pig kidney, in the midst of her recovery, has been successfully implanted in a New York City hospital

As she waits to be wheeled to an operating room at a hospital in New York City for a historic procedure, Towana Looney can hardly contain her excitement.

Looney is the first patient in the world to have 10 genetic modifications made to her pig kidneys to keep it from growing too large and causing other problems.

Montgomery received a human heart transplant in the fall of 2018, and he knows that more needs to be done to determine if this will work for other patients. But he’s thrilled.

In the meantime, Looney’s new pig kidney appears to be functioning well, and her recovery is proceeding faster than expected. In fact, she was discharged from the hospital to an apartment near the hospital less than two weeks after the operation. NPR met her again there.

“It’s impossible to predict what the public health implications might be if human-to-human transmission of a pig virus happens,” Johnson says. There’s concern that pigs are being bitten with bird flu. With xenotransplantation, the risks increase because we’re potentially putting an organ that harbors a virus into a patient who is immunosuppressed.”

Liver’s Miracle: A Transplanted Pig Kidney Offers a grandmother hope for life without dialysis in a Massachusetts patient’s nightmare

“I worry that it’s an offer patients can’t refuse because the alternative is certain death,” says Johnson, the SUNY Upstate Medical University bioethicist. I worry about patients being exploited and vulnerable to false hope.

She donated one of her kidneys to her mother. A few years later, she developed chronic high blood pressure during a pregnancy and her remaining kidney failed in 2016. She has been on the machine for three days a week.

The symptoms that limited her before the operation have disappeared. “No weakness. No tiredness. There is no fatigue. No swelling from fluid intake. I can eat more. I can drink more. I can walk longer distances. She says it’s amazing. “It’s life-changing.”

Source: A transplanted pig kidney offers a grandmother hope for life without dialysis

Getting a pig’s two kidneys out of a research farm: Jayme Locke, the chopper, and the plan to send a wheelchair to NPR

It is a big day. She’s a true pioneer,” says Dr. Jayme Locke. She was a doctor before moving to NYU. She’s helping Montgomery today.

A big screen on the wall shows the flight path of another set of surgeons. They’re going back to Blacksburg, Va., with a cloned pig’s two kidneys from the research farm run by Revivicor. NPR was given exclusive access to the facility last spring.

After they’re done stitching the kidney to the blood supply, the surgeons take a crucial step: They unclamp the artery and vein to let Looney’s blood flow into the pig organ.

The helicopter is flying over NYU Langone with a pig’s head on it. The chopper swoops through the clear blue sky along the East River and sets down on the helipad. The arriving crew places a white box about the size of a microwave oven that contains the pig’s two kidneys on a wheelchair and rushes it to the operating room.

“We’re not entirely sure exactly how we’re going to put them in yet until I have a look at them. The plan is to put in a single vessel, but we may use the other one as well.

Source: A transplanted pig kidney offers a grandmother hope for life without dialysis

A Transplanted Pig Kidney: “It’s All You Need”, explains Montgomery, as urine is poursed out in a Human Being

Then comes the final step: making sure the pig kidney is doing its job — producing urine. Montgomery unclamps a tube leading out of the kidney that he’ll later attach to the bladder.

“Now, we’re sewing the vein,” Montgomery says. “I just did my side of the vein, and we’re done with the vein We’re moving towards the arteries.

“Here we go,” Montgomery says, prompting another round of cheers and applause as urine starts gushing out. Look at that. That is great. Look at that. Beautiful. It was gorgeous. It’s pouring out. I’ll have wet socks tonight, Montgomery says, laughing, as urine splashes him.

“Couldn’t have gone better. He says it could not have gone better. “We’re really pleased at this point. It’s early days but you know it. It’s a big deal. But we’re off to a good start and that’s really important.”

“When you really think about what we just did it’s pretty amazing,” he says. “Putting a pig organ in a human being and having it work right away? You know, it’s like Stars Wars stuff, right?”

More than 103,000 people are waiting for a transplant, and 17 of them die every day. The kidneys are the most essential organs.

Source: A transplanted pig kidney offers a grandmother hope for life without dialysis

Living on the Edge: Transplanting a Pig Kidney to Give a Grandmother Hope for Life without Dialysis, According to Dr. Ayares

The other procedures Looney tried didn’t work. Locke, her long-time physician, says it has been a long journey for her. “And here she is today. I’m excited for her to get her life back.”

“It’s a really exciting day and I’ve been waiting outside the operating room to hear how the surgery went,” says David Ayares, president and chief scientific officer at Revivicor. “It is unbelievable.”

“The goal is to have an entire supply of organs,” he said. We’re trying to fix the organ shortage crisis. It’s all about having an unlimited amount of organs.

Critics want to see a careful study on the pig kidneys before they are performed one-by-one.

The compassionate use experiments have helped advance the science of xenotransplantation, as a bioethicist says.

“The gene edits are not made to benefit the pigs. The goal of the gene-editing is to attach a square peg into a round hole and force it to work in a human. But what does that do to the pig? How does it affect their health?” She says so. These pigs have been raised in environments that deprive them of many of their basic social and psychological needs.

Revivicor is asking the FDA to approve a formal clinical trial that could start as soon as 2025. EGenesis, of Cambridge, Mass., has begun testing organs from a different pig.

Johnson is not sure if the company is doing enough to prevent the spread of the pig viruses. There was a case of one of the pig heart recipients getting infections from a pig virus.

Source: A transplanted pig kidney offers a grandmother hope for life without dialysis

A grandmother hopes for life without dialysis in a transplanted pig kidney: “I’m so excited,” says a New Yorker

She’s enjoying cooking, being able to eat and drink a wider variety of foods and beverages, and exploring New York, although she’s being careful to avoid crowds and wears a mask. Her risk of rejecting the kidneys is reduced by taking medication that puts her at risk for infections.

“I was amazed!” ” she says. I told the nurse that I was peeing. She said: ‘No kidding. You’re peeing a lot, which is a good thing.’ It was very exciting to me.

Source: A transplanted pig kidney offers a grandmother hope for life without dialysis

Towana Looney’s surgery on November 25, 2015, saved by xenotransplantation of a human embryo in an animal-like environment

Her family and friends have been very supportive, although one friend objected to the procedure, saying “it’s not in the Bible for humans to receive animal parts,” Looney says. “I asked if he ate bacon for breakfast, and he said yes”, laughing. “It’s lifesaving.’ “

Looney’s looking forward to returning to her job as a part-time cashier at a Dollar General, traveling and spending more time with her family, especially her two adult daughters and two grandchildren.

The procedure Towana Looney underwent at NYU Langone Health on November 25 has no effect on her health. Doctors say she is in good health after her discharge from the hospital. Her surgery is a type of surgery known as xenotransplantation, which means to transplant organs from one species to another.