An Alabama woman is recovering well after a last month that freed her from eight years of dialysis, the latest effort to save human lives with animal organs.
Towana Looney is the given a 91裸聊视频� and notably, she isn91裸聊视频檛 as sick as who died within of receiving a pig kidney or heart.
91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 like a new beginning,91裸聊视频� Looney, 53, told The Associated Press. Right away, 91裸聊视频渢he energy I had was amazing. To have a working kidney 91裸聊视频� and to feel it 91裸聊视频� is unbelievable.91裸聊视频�
Looney91裸聊视频檚 surgery marks an important step as scientists get ready for formal studies of xenotransplantation expected to begin next year, said Dr. Robert Montgomery of NYU Langone Health, who led the highly experimental procedure.
Looney is recuperating well after her transplant, which was announced Tuesday. She was discharged from the hospital just 11 days after surgery to continue recovery in a nearby apartment although temporarily readmitted this week while her medications are adjusted. Doctors expect her to return home to Alabama in three months. If the pig kidney were to fail, she could begin dialysis again.
91裸聊视频淭o see hope restored to her and her family is extraordinary,91裸聊视频� said Dr. Jayme Locke, Looney91裸聊视频檚 original surgeon who secured Food and Drug Administration permission for the Nov. 25 transplant.
More than 100,000 people are on the U.S. transplant list, most who need a kidney. Thousands die waiting and many more who need a transplant never qualify. Now, searching for an alternate supply, scientists are genetically altering pigs so their organs are more humanlike.
Looney donated a kidney to her mother in 1999. Later a complication during pregnancy caused high blood pressure that damaged her remaining kidney, which eventually failed. It91裸聊视频檚 incredibly rare for living donors to develop kidney failure although those who do are given extra priority on the transplant list.
But Looney couldn91裸聊视频檛 get a match 91裸聊视频� she had developed antibodies abnormally primed to attack another human kidney. Tests showed she91裸聊视频檇 reject every kidney donors have offered.
Then Looney heard about pig kidney research at t and told Locke, at the time a UAB transplant surgeon, she91裸聊视频檇 like to try one. In April 2023, Locke filed an FDA application seeking an emergency experiment, under rules for people like Looney who are out of options.
The FDA didn91裸聊视频檛 agree right away. Instead, the world91裸聊视频檚 first gene-edited pig kidney transplants went to two sicker patients last spring, at Massachusetts General Hospital and NYU. Both also had serious heart disease. The Boston patient recovered enough to spend about a month at home before dying of sudden cardiac arrest deemed unrelated to the pig kidney. NYU91裸聊视频檚 patient had heart complications that damaged her pig kidney, forcing its removal, and she later died.
Those disappointing outcomes didn91裸聊视频檛 dissuade Looney, who was starting to feel worse on dialysis but, Locke said, hadn91裸聊视频檛 developed heart disease or other complications. The FDA eventually allowed her transplant at NYU, where Locke collaborated with Montgomery.
Even if her new organ fails, doctors can learn from it, Looney told the AP: 91裸聊视频淵ou don91裸聊视频檛 know if it91裸聊视频檚 going to work or not until you try.91裸聊视频�
Blacksburg, Virginia-based Revivicor provided Looney91裸聊视频檚 new kidney from a pig with 10 gene alterations. Moments after Montgomery sewed it into place, the kidney turned a healthy pink and began producing urine.
Looney was initially discharged on Dec. 6, wearing monitors to track her blood pressure, heart rate and other bodily functions and returning to the hospital for daily checkups before her medication readmission. Doctors scrutinize her bloodwork and other tests, comparing them to prior research in animals and in hopes of spotting an early warning if problems crop up.
91裸聊视频淎 lot of what we91裸聊视频檙e seeing, we91裸聊视频檙e seeing for the first time,91裸聊视频� Montgomery said.
During a visit last week with Locke, who now works for the federal government, Looney hugged her longtime doctor, saying, 91裸聊视频淭hank you for not giving up on me.91裸聊视频�
91裸聊视频淣ever,91裸聊视频� Locke responded.
