![\"Massachusetts](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/260904-kidney-transplant-ch-1309-7ec876.jpg\")
Over the following 271 days he needed no dialysis before receiving a human transplant, according to a statement from Mass General.Courtesy Massachusetts General Hospital<\/p>\n
Andrews\u2019 treatment at Mass General Brigham in Boston marked a significant step forward in xenotransplantation, the transplantation of living organs from one species into another, according to findings published Thursday in The Lancet medical journal. <\/p>\n
Andrews, a retired grocery store manager from Barrington New Hampshire, was 66 when he received the pig kidney on Jan. 25, 2025. <\/p>\n
The case shows that a transplanted pig kidney can safely support renal function \u201cwhile also serving as a bridge\u201d to a subsequent transplant with a human kidney, the study authors wrote.<\/p>\n
Over the following 271 days he needed no dialysis before receiving a human transplant, according to a statement from Mass General.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis case represents the longest dialysis-free survival following porcine kidney xenotransplantation in a living human and the first transition to human kidney transplantation,\u201d the hospital said. <\/p>\n
Andrews has reacted well to receiving a human donor kidney.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could be talking decades (of life expectancy),\u201d said the father of three children between the ages of 40 to 46. \u201cIt\u2019s running perfect. I mean, the thing is perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
The past few years have given him new appreciation for the \u201clittle things in life.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"Massachusetts](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/260904-kidney-transplant-ch-1306-406824.jpg\")
Andrews, a retired grocery store manager from Barrington New Hampshire, was 66 when he received the pig kidney on Jan. 25, 2025. Courtesy Massachusetts General Hospital<\/p>\n
He now relishes daily acts of smelling flowers, swimming, riding a bike and fishing. <\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day I wake up. I\u2019m like, (this is) another (extra) day because I should have been dead a year ago or more,\u201d Andrews said. <\/p>\n
The patient knows nothing about the kidney donor, other than he was a young man who enjoyed blueberries \u2014 a fruit Andrews didn\u2019t care much for in his first six decades of life, but now has developed a strange affinity for. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo know that somebody died way younger and I\u2019m living because of it, that\u2019s pretty tough,\u201d said an emotional Andrews, his voice trailing off. \u201cI have this new kidney in me and I need to honor it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Xenotransplantation could soon become a lifesaving option, according to Riella, the study\u2019s lead author.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe organ shortage is the greatest crisis we have right now in transplantation,\u201d wrote Riella. \u201cWe know that the best treatment option for patients with end-stage kidney disease who have developed renal failure is transplantation, but we simply don\u2019t have enough human organs to transplant in a timely manner.\u201d<\/p>\n More than 100,000 people are on the national transplant waiting list<\/a>. The vast majority are waiting for a kidney. <\/p>\n Towana Looney<\/a> lived with a pig kidney<\/a> for a then-record 130 days before it was removed in April 2025 because <\/a>her body began rejecting it.<\/p>\n The 55-year-old is still alive and on dialysis in the hopes of finding a matching human donor, a representative for NYU Langone Health said Friday.<\/p>\n For patients like Andrews, using pig kidneys could help buy them enough time to find a human donor.<\/p>\n \u201cOur vision is that xenotransplantation could help address this gap \u2014 initially as a bridge to get patients off dialysis while they wait for a human donor kidney, and potentially, as we establish long-term safety and durability, as a destination therapy in its own right,\u201d Riella said.<\/p>\n There could be a day in the near future when pig kidney transplants could be regularly used as a bridge to human donors.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we talked the first time and I met Dr. Riella, they were talking about at least 10 years, that it\u2019s going to be at least 10 years before this becomes viable \u2014\u00a0now they\u2019re talking about five years or less than five years,\u201d Andrews said, adding he \u201cmay live to see it\u201d become a common procedure. <\/p>\n Mass General performed the world\u2019s first pig-to-human kidney transplant in 2024. <\/p>\n![\"Massachusetts](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/260904-kidney-transplant-ch-1304-0098dc.jpg\")
Xenotransplantation could soon become a lifesaving option, according to the study\u2019s lead author Dr. Leonardo Riella.Courtesy Massachusetts General Hospital<\/p>\n