An Alabama woman who lived with a pig kidney for a record 130 days had it removed from her body on Friday (April 11) after her body started to reject it, leading to her being put back on dialysis, doctors announced via the Associated Press.
Towana Looney, who underwent removal surgery at NYU Langone Health on April 4, has returned to her home in Gadsen and thanked doctors for “the opportunity to be part of this incredible research" in a statement.
“Though the outcome is not what anyone wanted, I know a lot was learned from my 130 days with a pig kidney – and that this can help and inspire many others in their journey to overcoming kidney disease,” Looney said via the Associated Press.
Scientists have been genetically altering pigs to make their organs more humanlike amid a severe shortage of transplantable human organs with more than 100,000 people on the U.S. transplant list. Thousands of kidney patients die waiting for a donor, according to the Associated Press.
Only four other Americans had previously undergone experimental xenotransplants of gene-edit pig organs prior to Looney, which included two heart and two kidney patients, with the recipients lasting no longer than two months before falling severely ill and dying before another surgery. Researchers are attempting surgeries in slightly less patients, including Looney, as well as a New Hampshire man who received a pig kidney in January and is reported to be faring well so far.