Surgeons have successfully performed the fifth gene-edited pig organ transplant to an Alabama woman who needed a new kidney.
Twana Rooney, 53, underwent the procedure after eight years of dialysis.
“It's like a new beginning,” said Rooney, 53. Associated Press. Immediately, she said, “My energy was amazing. It's incredible that my kidneys are working and that I can feel it.”
Robert Montgomery, a physician at New York University Langone Health, performed the surgery that advanced formal research into xenotransplantation.
The Hill has reached out to NYU Langone Health for comment about the surgery.
Experts believe a new transplant method could save the lives of millions of people with pre-existing health conditions or organ failure.
Rooney's case was unique. She donated one of her kidneys to her mother in 1999. A few years later, pregnancy complications caused her other kidney to fail, putting her life at risk.
After failing to find a suitable patient for a kidney transplant, she chose to undergo a pig kidney transplant through an FDA emergency experimental application in 2023, even though patients who had previously undergone the procedure had died.
“You won't know if it's going to work until you try it,” Rooney told The Associated Press.
She was discharged from the hospital 11 days after surgery and plans to return to her home in Alabama within three months as her recovery efforts continue to progress well.
