New York City Heart Transplant Operations: Towana Looney explains how the hospital was fortunate to have been selected to perform the surgery and why she’s excited about it

NEW YORK – Towana Looney can hardly contain her anticipation as she waits to get wheeled to an operating room at the NYU Langone Health hospital in New York City for an historic procedure.

Two individuals previously received heart transplants from genetically engineered pigs, the first in January 2022 and a second in September 2023, both at the University of Maryland. Those patients died less than two months after their surgeries and were too sick to leave the hospital.

Montgomery has received a human heart transplant, but he knows there’s a lot more work to be done to see if it works for other patients. But he’s thrilled.

Looney was discharged earlier than expected from the hospital, but had to return for a few days to have her medication adjusted. Her doctors are optimistic.

He says the company is taking extra precautions to prevent the organs from spreading any pig viruses to people. Everyone in the operating room was tested prior to surgery so that they don’t catch a pig virus that’s called the porcine endogenous retroviruses or PERV.

“I have many concerns,” says L. Syd M Johnson, a bioethicist at SUNY Upstate Medical University. “There’s a lot of hope, but hope is not scientific evidence. And it’s not a great way to do science — as a series of one-off experiments by different research teams, using different protocols, organs with different gene edits, and dying patients who have run out of options.”

A Transplanted Pig Kidney Offers a Grandmother Hope for Life Without Dialysis: Jayme Locke’s Journey to NYU Langone

Her mother received one of her kidneys in 1999. She developed chronic high blood pressure during her pregnancies and her remaining kidneys failed in the summer of 2016 She has been on the transplant unit for four hours a day since then.

“She’s in better condition than other patients who have undergone this procedure. Montgomery is in the middle of surgery and says that they’re hopeful. “We have an amazing team and everything’s going like clockwork.”

“It’s a really big day. She’s a true pioneer,” says Dr. Jayme Locke. She was Looney’s doctor before moving from the University of Alabama at Birmingham to NYU. She is helping Montgomery today.

A big screen on the wall shows the flight path of another set of surgeons. They’re flying back from rural Virginia with two kidneys from one of the cloned, gene-edited pigs being bred at a research farm run by Revivicor, a Blacksburg, Va., biotech company. NPR got exclusive access to tour the company’s facility last spring.

When the surgery is over, the surgeons take the vital step of unclamping the vein and arteries to get blood into the pig organ.

The screen on the wall shows the helicopter approaching NYU Langone with the pig kidneys. The helicopter flies through the East River in a clear blue sky and lands on the helipad. The arriving crew places a white box about the size of a microwave oven that contains the pig’s two kidneys on a wheelchair and rushes it to the operating room.

Source: A transplanted pig kidney offers a grandmother hope for life without dialysis

Getting an organ transplant from a pig kidney: How excited are we going to make it happen, and how wonderful will it be if I’m lucky?

We haven’t figured out how we’re going to put them in yet. The plan is to only put one in, but we may use the vessels from the other one as well,” Montgomery says.

The team prepares the pig kidneys for transplant. That involves removing fat and locating veins and arteries.

Montgomery says they’re sewing the vein now. “I just did my side of the vein, and we’re done with the vein We’re going onto the other side of the arteries.

“Here we go,” Montgomery says, prompting another round of cheers and applause as urine starts gushing out. Look at that. That is wonderful. Look at that. Beautiful. Such a beautiful thing. It’s just pouring out. I’m going to have wet socks tonight,” Montgomery says, laughing, as urine splashes him.

“Couldn’t have gone better. He thinks it could not have gone better. “We’re really pleased at this point. You know it is early days. It’s a big deal. We’re off to a great start, that’s important.

He says it’s pretty amazing when you think about it. Wouldn’t it be awesome to put a pig organ in a human and have it work immediately? So, it is like Stars Wars stuff, right?

A lot of people are waiting for an organ transplant, and 17 die every day. The most needed organs are the kidneys.

Source: A transplanted pig kidney offers a grandmother hope for life without dialysis

Transplanting a Pig Kidney Offers a Grandmother Hope for Life without Dialysis: Revivicor’s David Ayares

He tried other experimental procedures, but nothing worked. Locke, her physician, says that this has been a long journey for her. “And here she is today. I’m excited for her to get her life back.”

“It’s exciting, and I hope the surgery went well,” said David Ayares, president and chief scientist at Revivicor, who was waiting outside of the operating room to hear how the surgery went. “Unbelievable.”

“The goal is an unlimited organs supply,” Ayares said. We’re trying to fix the shortage of organs. So having an unlimited supply of kidneys, hearts and other organs is what it’s all about.”

Critics think a careful study is needed to evaluate the pig kidneys, instead of performing them one-by-one.

“The compassionate use experiments have been helpful in advancing the science of xenotransplantation,” says Michael Gusmano, a bioethicist at Lehigh University College of Health.

“It’s difficult to draw conclusions about safety and efficacy from xenotransplants with patients who have different medical profiles,” says Karen Maschke, a bioethicist at The Hastings Center, a biomedical think tank. “It’s also difficult to draw safety and efficacy conclusions when pigs with different gene edits are used.”

Revivicor wants the FDA to give the go-ahead for a formal clinical trial as soon as possible. A rival called e Genesis is testing organs from another pig.

Johnson is not convinced that the company is doing enough to prevent the spread of pig viruses to people. There was evidence one of the pig heart recipients got infected with a pig virus called porcine cytomegalovirus.

Source: A transplanted pig kidney offers a grandmother hope for life without dialysis

A transplanted pig kidney offers a grandmother hope for life without dialysis to a young woman with a very fragile immune system

She’s enjoying cooking and enjoying a wide variety of foods and beverages, but she’s careful to avoid crowds and is wearing a mask. She’s taking medication to reduce her risk of rejecting the kidney, making her vulnerable to infections.

“I was like, ‘Wow!’ ” She says so. I told the nurse that I’m peeing. She said that she was not kidding. You’re peeing a lot, which is a good thing.’ It was very exciting to me.

Source: A transplanted pig kidney offers a grandmother hope for life without dialysis

A Lifesaving Surgery to Remove a Kidney from a Blood-Away Embryo: Towana Announces Medical Recovery

One friend objected to the procedure because it was not in the Bible, but the family and friends were very supportive. “I said, ‘You ate bacon this morning for breakfast didn’t you?’ ” laughing. “It’s lifesaving.’ “

She’s looking forward to returning to work at a Dollar General and spending time with her family, especially her two adult daughters and two grandchildren.

In a procedure that took place at NYU Langone Health on November 25, Towana had been off of Kidney Dilation. She was discharged from the hospital on December 6, and her doctors say she is in good health. Her surgery is the latest in a series of similar procedures known as xenotransplantation, the practice of transplanting organs from one species to another.