The American lived with a pork kidney for over 4 months: ‘Finally life without dialysis …’

Towana Looney, a fifty -year -old from Alabama, had a transplant a genetically modified pork kidney at the end of November, which is a practice that is still very experimental, but offers hope in resolving the chronic lack of organ.

The kidney removal shows how far this goal is, but the encouraging fact is that the organ has fulfilled its functions for 130 days, or more than four months, which is a record. Until now, no patient has been able to survive more than two months after such a transplant.

« For the first time since 2016. I could enjoy my friends and my family, having time, without needing to plan on all about the treatment of dialysis, » said a patient in a statement shared by Nyu Langon Hospital in New York. She is « very grateful (…) even though the result was not the way everyone was hoping. »

In 1999, the American donated one of her kidneys to her mother and was on dialysis eight years after her pregnancy complication damaged the remaining kidney. Because she couldn’t find the right donor, she got permission to get a genetically modified kidney because her health had worsened.

Despite the encouraging initial results, « In early April, she experienced a decline in the function of kidney for acute rejection, » said her surgeon, Robert Montgomery.

« The cause of this episode of rejection after a long period of stability is explored, but it followed by a decrease in immunosuppressive treatment due to the treatment of infection that is not associated with pork kidney, » he explained.

The decision to remove the organs was made by the patient and her doctors to preserve « the possibility of a future transplant, » Montgomery said.