Surgeons successfully completed the fifth gene-edited pig organ transplant for an Alabama woman who needed a new kidney.
Towana Looney, 53, underwent the procedure after eight years of dialysis.
“It’s like a new beginning,” Looney, 53, told the Associated Press. Right away, “the energy I had was amazing. To have a working kidney — and to feel it — is unbelievable.”
Physician Robert Montgomery of NYU Langone Health performed the operation advancing formal studies of xenotransplantation.
The Hill reached out to NYU Langone Health for comment on the operation.
Experts believe the new method for transplants can save the lives of millions with pre-existing health conditions or organ failures.
Looney’s case was unique. She donated one of her kidneys to her mother in 1999. Years later her other kidney failed due to pregnancy complications which put her life at risk.
After failing to find a match for a kidney transplant, she opted to undergo a pig kidney transplant through a 2023 FDA application for an emergency experiment despite the death of previous patients who underwent the procedure.
“You don’t know if it’s going to work or not until you try,” Looney told AP.
She was released from the hospital 11 days after the surgery and is expected to return home to Alabama in three months as her recovery efforts remain positive.
