First Person To Receive a Genetically Modified Pig Kidney Transplant Dies (npr.org) 25
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: Richard "Rick" Slayman, the first human to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant, has died almost two months after the procedure. Slayman, who had end-stage kidney disease, underwent the transplant in March at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston at age 62. The hospital said in a statement on Saturday that there was "no indication" that his death was the result of the transplant. The transplant surgeon had said he hoped the transplant would function for at least two years.
"The Mass General transplant team is deeply saddened at the sudden passing of Mr. Rick Slayman," read the hospital statement. "Mr. Slayman will forever be seen as a beacon of hope to countless transplant patients worldwide and we are deeply grateful for his trust and willingness to advance the field of xenotransplantation." The surgery was a milestone for the field of xenotransplantation -- the transplant of organs from one species to another -- as a way to alleviate the organ shortage for people who need transplants. The effort to genetically modify animal organs is in hopes that the human body will not reject the foreign tissue. NPR notes that there are more than 100,000 people in the U.S. on the waitlist for organs.
"The Mass General transplant team is deeply saddened at the sudden passing of Mr. Rick Slayman," read the hospital statement. "Mr. Slayman will forever be seen as a beacon of hope to countless transplant patients worldwide and we are deeply grateful for his trust and willingness to advance the field of xenotransplantation." The surgery was a milestone for the field of xenotransplantation -- the transplant of organs from one species to another -- as a way to alleviate the organ shortage for people who need transplants. The effort to genetically modify animal organs is in hopes that the human body will not reject the foreign tissue. NPR notes that there are more than 100,000 people in the U.S. on the waitlist for organs.
Cause of death (Score:5, Informative)
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It never said her father touched her inappropriately, just that the showers were awkward.
Re:Cause of death (Score:4, Insightful)
Slayman had previously received a human kidney transplant, but that kidney showed signs of failure after five years, sending him back to dialysis with end-stage kidney failure and requiring regular hospital visits for management of dialysis complications.
Slayman was approved for the experimental procedure under a single FDA Expanded Access Protocol, or EAP, often called a compassionate-use protocol. These are granted to a single patient or group of patients with serious, life-threatening illnesses or conditions to gain access to experimental treatments or trials when no comparable treatment options or therapies exist.
He was definitely going to die without treatment, and couldn't get a normal kidney, couldn't survive dialysis without getting hospitalized for additional complications. It's useless to speculate from "dying man, dies" whether the procedure helped or not. I wonder what the second guy to get a pig kidney one month after Slayman, thinks about this.
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I believe I read somewhere at the time of the original story of the transplant was that he was also suffering from a form of liver cancer...that he said that he was going to focus on now. So I suspect he participated in an experiment that helped him live without dialysis for a few weeks. So far there was no sign of rejection or other kidney issues as the cause of death...unlike the pig heart transplant trial where one case showed rejection.
Sad news. But.. (Score:5, Funny)
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Too soon.
That said, I came here to say the same thing.
It may be in poor taste, but if I were the patient, I would certainly have wanted to have lots of jokes made.
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Totally thought this. :)
Renaldo Porkmann (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re: Renaldo Porkmann (Score:4, Informative)
They probably did a lot of CMP, 24 hour urine with creatinine clearance, lymphocytes, tacrolimus, just like they do after any ordinary kidney transplant. And of course, they bomb you with a high dose of immunosuppressants in the beginning, so you'll have plenty of warning for indication of rejection before anything serious happens.
If they see no indication that the transplant was the cause, then likely these numbers all came out within a range you'd expect. Immediately post transplant it's not uncommon to see no improvement at all for a time because the new kidney doesn't necessarily start working right away, and if it takes too long they end up removing it. Obviously that didn't happen.
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Is the information that is available about this procedure (including the passing of the person who received the implant) encouraging for those with end-stage renal disease?
Re: Renaldo Porkmann (Score:3)
I haven't read into this in that much detail (I started to once, but google is so good damn frustrating and often useless when it comes to finding anything that isn't a flashy headline with no specifics) but I tend to think so. I saw another post mention that his creatinine was 10mg/dl before transplant -- holy fucking hell, worst mine got was 4. I can't help but think he was already dealing with kidney disease for years, likely decades, and that alone will do a number on your other major organs, especially
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According the statistics, the first guy died, and the second guy who received a pig kidney is presumably very nervous. What statistics were you expecting? The doctors say the pig kidney worked and there's no indication it failed, and you're not competent to analyze his test results even were they allowed to publish them. To even be allowed an experimental procedure, you have to be untreatably ill, so it's no surprise they died.
Re:Renaldo Porkmann (Score:5, Informative)
Here are some numbers from scientific reporting from when the transplant was announced 2 months ago:
"When the surgeons restored blood flow to the transplanted pig organ, it immediately turned pink and started to produce urine, says Kawai, a sign that the transplant had been successful. [...] Kawai says that before the transplant, Slayman’s creatinine level was 10 milligrams per decilitre, but it had gone down to 2.4 by the fourth day after the surgery. “It seems like so far this kidney is functioning the way that it is supposed to,” Mohiuddin says."
original link: https://www.nature.com/article... [nature.com] ; non-paywalled: https://bookcafe.yuntsg.com/ue... [yuntsg.com]
There's more but paywalled: https://www.bmj.com/content/38... [bmj.com]
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It appeared to work well enough, but one can infer that it probably wasnt expected to remain working well forever (The original estimate was somewhere in the order of "a few years"). It was *still* a pig kidney, despite some 59 CRISPR edits, its innevitable that at some point either the body will pull a "wtf" and kill it, or some fundamental biological incompatibility would wear the whole thing down, and thats not even going into the mutual incompatibility with the respective natural faunas. (Ie pig bacteri
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But these stories never tell you. No percentages, no statistics, barely any numbers at all, on anything.
By "these stories" are you talking about stories of a medical trial that was unexpectedly cut short and unable to provide long term data? This is like asking someone who died on the way to a music festival what they thought of the band.
There were other stories which covered how well the kidney worked shortly after the trial. This story here is about the fact you're not going to get the long term data you want.
It must be said... (Score:3)
Rick Slayman, a brave contributor to medical research, has gone wee wee wee all the way home to Jeebus.
Experimental Transplants (Score:3)
Well, in most cases, to receive an experimental transplant, you have to be healthy enough to have a chance of surviving, but unhealthy enough that you're not likely to live waiting for a non-experimental transplant. As such, most such patients are fairly likely to have relatively short life spans even if things go right.
We don't know the details, but we can assume the patient had some medical complications from his previous kidney failure.
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Word of advice (Score:2)
Pay humans instead (Score:1)
Human organs would be the most logical, but the system is bleeped up. Rather than rely on volunteerism, PAY. Make sure there is no incentive to cheat by having it a pooled non-profit resource. Pay potential donors a monthly stipend while alive rather than after they die so there's no incentive for relatives to whack them for cash. They would be required to wear a tag to notify emergency workers and subject to random audits.