Woman who received a heart pump and pig kidney transplant dies three months later

Woman who received a heart pump and pig kidney transplant dies three months later

Lisa Pisano, 54, became the second person to receive a gene-edited pig kidney transplant (designed to increase compatibility between the pig graft and its human recipient).

Health.– A woman who received a pig kidney transplant on April 12 at a New York hospital and had to have it removed 47 days later has died.his surgeon told the media on Tuesday.

Lisa Pisano54 years old, became the second person to receive a gene-edited pig kidney transplant (designed to increase compatibility between the pig graft and its human recipient) in a surgery in which it was also implanted a mechanical heart pump, to keep your heart beating.

Pisano, from New Jersey, was also the first to receive a transplant and a heart pump because she suffered from kidney and heart failure. Not even two months had passed when his new kidney had to be removed because it was affected by irregular blood flow. related to the heart pump, which forced him to return to dialysis.

“Lisa’s contributions to medicine, surgery and xenotransplantation (involving the use of organs from another species) cannot be overstated. Her bravery gave hope to thousands of people living with end-stage kidney or heart failure who might soon benefit from an alternative organ supply,” according to her surgeon Robert Montgomery.

The first person to receive a kidney from a genetically modified pig was Richard Slayman, 62, last March in Massachusetts, but died two months later.

Kidneys are one of the most in-demand organs in transplant units in the United States, where there are some 800,000 people in need: many patients spend years on waiting lists, and some of them die without having received a transplant, according to the National Kidney Foundation.