American Woman Lives for Two Months with Transplanted Pig Kidney
A 53-year-old woman from the United States, Tovah Luni, has been living with a transplanted pig kidney for 61 days, a record-breaking achievement, according to MedicalXpress.
Luni reports that she is recovering quickly and during long walks in New York City, she even outpaces other family members.
The publication notes that only four Americans have undergone experimental transplantation of pig organs - two hearts and two kidneys, but no one, except Luni, has lived for more than two months.
"If you saw her on the street, you wouldn't even think that she is the only person in the world who walks with a functioning pig organ inside," the article states.
Dr. Montgomery called the work of Luni's kidney "absolutely normal" and expressed hope that his patient will be able to go home to Alabama in about a month.
The material says that scientists are genetically modifying pigs so that their organs are more similar to human ones, because the problem of lack of human organs is very acute. In the US, more than 100,000 people are on the transplant list, most of them need a kidney. Thousands die without waiting for a life-saving organ.
Luni's recovery is a "very valuable experience," said Dr. Tatsuo Kawai of Massachusetts General Hospital, who performed the world's first pig kidney transplant last year. He noted that Luni was much healthier than previous patients, so her progress will help plan future surgeries.
Interestingly, back in 1999, Luni donated one kidney to her mother. Later, complications of pregnancy caused her to have high blood pressure, which damaged the only remaining kidney, which eventually failed. The woman lived for eight years on dialysis before doctors concluded that she would probably never receive a donor organ, because her body developed an extremely high level of antibodies, ready to abnormally attack another human kidney. Therefore, a pig organ was chosen for Luni.
