Doctors Combined a Heart Pump and Pig Kidney Transplant in Breakthrough Surgery

A 54-year-old New Jersey woman has become the second living person to receive a genetically engineered pig kidney. The surgery, carried out at NYU Langone Health on April 12, also involved transplanting the pig’s thymus gland to help prevent rejection.

The patient, Lisa Pisano, had a mechanical heart pump implanted days before getting the transplant. She was facing heart failure and end-stage kidney disease and wasn’t eligible for a human organ transplant because of several other medical conditions. Her medical team says she’s recovering well.

“I feel fantastic,” Pisano said from her hospital bed over Zoom during a press conference on Wednesday. “When this opportunity came, I said, ‘I’m gonna take

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