Alabama Woman Receives Third-Ever Pig Kidney Transplant at NYU Langone Health on November 25, 2024, Freed from Dialysis

Dec 17, 2024, 05:30 PM

Towana Looney, a 53-year-old woman from Alabama, has successfully undergone a pig kidney transplant at NYU Langone Health in New York, marking the third instance of such a procedure on a living patient. The transplant, which took place on November 25, 2024, has freed Looney from eight years of dialysis. She is the fifth American to receive a gene-edited pig organ, and her health condition is reported to be better than that of previous recipients who died within two months of receiving pig organs. Looney's kidney, sourced from a pig with 10 genetic modifications, began functioning immediately after the transplant, turning a healthy pink and producing urine. She was discharged from the hospital 11 days post-surgery and is currently recovering in a nearby apartment, with plans to return to Alabama in three months. If the pig kidney fails, she can resume dialysis. The procedure is part of ongoing efforts to address the chronic shortage of human organs for transplant, with more than 100,000 people on the U.S. transplant list, most needing kidneys.