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Towana Looney is the only person in the world with a working pig kidney. But her doctor predicts that in less than a decade, pig-to-human organ transplants like hers could be routine.
Looney, 53, from Alabama, underwent a transplant at the NYU Langone Transplant Institute in New York on November 25. Eleven days later, she was able to walk out the door as hospital staff lined the hall and applauded. Wearing a mask and NYU Langone Health sweats, Lonnie gave two thumbs up in the air.
Doctors announced on Tuesday that Loni is doing well and his kidney is working as expected.
Currently, she lives in an apartment near the hospital so she can have daily check-ups. A team of doctors will also monitor her health using artificial intelligence and wearable devices that can detect problems like infections before she gets sick.
Looney won't be back in Alabama for the holidays, but if all goes well, her doctors say she'll be able to go home in three months and resume her normal life and spend quality time with her family and grandchildren.
Looney didn't have a normal life for a while. She was currently among over 90,000 people. Waiting list Kidney transplantation in the US.
“There have been many obstacles, but I will not give up,” she said in a video shared by Niu.
Even before this surgery, Looney was no stranger to transplants. In the year In 1999, she donated a kidney to her mother to save her life. But after some time, she became one of the less than 1% of living kidney donors to receive a kidney. National Kidney Foundation.
In the last trimester of her pregnancy, Lonnie developed preeclampsia, a symptom of high blood pressure, which could damage her remaining kidney. She also needed a blood transfusion, and both factors made it difficult to find a match with a kidney donor.
In the year In 2016, Lonnie went on dialysis, which helps remove waste and extra fluid from the blood. Dialysis can be helpful in the short term, but only 10% to 15% of the time Healthy kidneys It does, and people on dialysis face a 50% chance of dying within five years of starting it. the treatment, Studies show.
“She's hypersensitive to her pregnancy and blood transfusions, which means her body is making antibodies that are harmful to other people's tissues,” said one of her doctors, Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute.
Looney in 2010 She entered the kidney waiting list in 2017. Doctors said she was slowly losing access to blood vessels to continue dialysis and eventually it would stop being useful. If there is no donor match, she will die.
Loney first heard about the option of a pig kidney transplant from Dr. Jaime Locke, then a professor of surgery and director of the Division of Transplantation at the University of Alabama Hersink School of Medicine in Birmingham. Locke was recently appointed to a new transplant leadership position at the US Health Resources and Services Administration.
Locke described her work in xenotransplantation, the term doctors use to transplant organs from animals into humans. Despite years of research, the field is still in its early stages; It's a looney. Third person To receive a living kidney from a gene-edited pig. But Lonnie gets the chance to try it, saying that she hasn't even finished asking about the approach before Locke agrees.
Locke explains the opportunity and asks Lonnie why she would agree to be a part of the trial process. Looney says she wants to “help more people.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows doctors to transplant organs from pigs to humans under what is commonly known as “compassionate use,” allowing the use of an experimental treatment or procedure if there are no “comparable or satisfactory” alternatives.
Pigs' organs are similar to humans, and the reproductive rate of pigs means that their organs can be purchased quickly. Scientists can modify the pig's genes to reduce the risk of human organ rejection.
She was the first of three people to receive a kidney from a genetically engineered pig while they were still alive, with 10 genetically modified kidneys.
In March, 52-year-old Rick Slyman End-stage renal failureHe received a pig kidney transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital. His kidney was working at first, and he was able to go home after two weeks, but he died two months later.
In AprilNYU performed a pig kidney transplant on 54-year-old Lisa Pisano with a mechanical heart pump.
Doctors say Lonnie is in better health than the previous two recipients, despite her kidney problems. Montgomery said Loney came through the surgery “beautifully.” After it was attached, the kidney turned pink and started working immediately.
“Like dialysis, I know anything can happen now, but I want to know that I tried. I tried to make a difference.” Looney said in a New York video.
She will have to continue taking medication to prevent her body from rejecting the pig kidney, but the team hopes the kidney will continue to function so she can live a long and healthy life.
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Overall, Montgomery says he's optimistic about recent improvements in the field. Scientists have been studying. xenotransplantation For decades, but in the last two years, they have He learned quickly How the recipient's body can reject the organ and how to treat potential complications.
“The more we do one of these, the brighter we become, and the better able we are to meet challenges,” Montgomery said in the NYU video.
There are still many fascinating questions about xenotransplantation. Scientists, for example, do not know how long a pig's body works. But Montgomery made a bold prediction: After a few more transplants used with compassion, he believes clinical trials could begin proving the procedure works by 2025.
Having that option can be a game changer 13 people die every day in America Awaiting kidney transplant.
“It's not going to completely replace a person-to-person transplant, but I think it's going to add to our organs so that more people don't die or get very sick,” Montgomery said in the NYU video. .
Looney says it's amazing to be able to live without having to go to the bathroom all day.
“I feel great,” she said. “It's great when you feel the energy, the kidney blood flow. It's just wonderful, wonderful.”
reporter Nadia Kunang contributed to this report.