Man Receives Human Kidney After Historic Pig Organ Transplant Fails
Tim Andrews understood he required a miracle. The 67-year-old resident of New Hampshire had endured two years of kidney failure, a consequence of his diabetes. This condition forced him into a grueling regimen of dialysis, spending six hours daily, three times each week, to filter toxins from his bloodstream as his kidneys could not.
Much of Andrews' existence was confined to a chair while the dialysis machine sustained his kidney function. Intense fatigue and muscle wasting robbed him of his ability to walk. After six months of this treatment, he suffered a heart attack.
'I knew I was going to die,' he confessed to the Daily Mail. 'I thought there's got to be another way.'
Discovering Xenotransplantation
While researching alternative treatments, Andrews encountered an article about Richard Slayman, a 62-year-old from Boston. In 2024, Slayman had received a transplanted genetically modified pig kidney at Massachusetts General Hospital to treat his end-stage kidney disease. Although initially successful, Slayman died just two months later from an unexpected cardiac event. Doctors stated there was 'no indication' his death resulted from the transplant, a procedure known as xenotransplantation.
'The more I read about it, the more I thought it might work,' Andrews recalled.
At that time, the procedure had only been performed a handful of times across the United States. The team at Massachusetts General Hospital agreed to consider Andrews if he completed several months of physical therapy to strengthen himself and reduce the risk of his body quickly rejecting the animal organ.
The Pig Kidney Transplant
On January 25, 2025, Andrews underwent a three-hour procedure where his diseased kidneys were removed, and he received one pig kidney. He spent a week in the hospital before being discharged on 51 different medications to suppress his immune system from rejecting the pig kidney, which he affectionately named Wilma.
'At first it was great, which I realized was the steroids. They made you feel real good, like I'm Superman. As they wean those off, it got a little tougher. Bumps in the road,' Andrews described.
Wilma kept Andrews off dialysis, but over the following months, his condition gradually declined. He began urinating less and suffered flu-like symptoms such as fever, headaches, and nausea, all signs of organ rejection.
Return to Dialysis and a New Hope
Finally, after 271 days, a record for kidney xenotransplantation, Andrews had Wilma removed in October 2025.
'For 271 days, we fought it and fought it and fought it,' he said. 'I knew probably a week before they're going to take it out, that she was done. She was done fighting.'
Now left with no remaining kidneys, Andrews was forced back into the dialysis chair, becoming one of the 90,000 Americans awaiting a human kidney. Despite the demand, just under 30,000 kidney transplants are performed each year in the US.
'I was like, "Here I am again,"' Andrews said. 'I can't walk, I want to sleep all day, I'm sick all the time. [Dialysis] is tough on the body, tough on the mind.'
By this point, he was convinced he had only a few months left to live. The kidneys are essential for filtering toxins and minerals from the body. Without them, waste and potassium build up in the bloodstream, damaging the lungs and heart.
A Lifesaving Human Kidney
Andrews, a father of two daughters, was starting to make peace with the inevitable when he received a call just before midnight on January 12, 2026, nearly a year after his first experimental surgery. A human kidney, a near-perfect match, was ready for him 87 miles away in Boston.
Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital implanted the kidney on a Wednesday morning, and by Friday afternoon, Andrews was already on his way home to recover. Now, he is the first person in the world to have a human kidney transplant after a xenotransplantation.
The History and Future of Xenotransplantation
Xenotransplantation was first attempted in the early 20th century by trying to insert pieces of a rabbit's kidney into a child, which failed. It would not be until the 1960s when a chimpanzee kidney was successfully implanted into an adult, who lived with the organ for nine months.
In the 1990s, researchers identified pigs as the ideal choice for these transplants because they are widely available and similar in structure to humans, though primates have been used in older attempts. The procedure has been attempted roughly a dozen times since the early 1900s. Slayman in 2024 was the recipient of the first successful genetically edited pig kidney.
Recovery and Advocacy
A month after the lifesaving operation, recovering at home in New Hampshire, Andrews told the Daily Mail 'there are still bumps' in the road. He now manages a list of 20 anti-rejection medications, down from 51 last year, and must monitor blood sugar spikes, as immunosuppressant medications can increase the risk of insulin resistance.
'But I'm going to feel good,' he affirmed.
Andrews' new kidney came from an unidentified deceased donor. Following his operation, he posted a message on Facebook for the donor's family, expressing his grief and gratitude, calling the donor a hero who gave hope to millions.
Andrews said he is most looking forward 'to living longer than I thought I would.' He also knows he is one of the lucky minority to receive a lifesaving donation and that more organ donors are desperately needed.
'People should be donors,' he urged. 'There's no reason not to have your driver's license say "donor" on it. Mine did from the time I was 16. I didn't know I would be a recipient at that time; I thought I'd be a donor for sure, and it worked out the other way.'
He added, 'It's an amazing feeling to have somebody save your life. It's tough because mine was a deceased, so there's a lot of emotion involved here with a person having to die for me to live. It's tough, but I'm dealing with it.'
Andrews also hopes more people in need of organs can benefit from xenotransplantation as a bridge to further treatment. 'In a few years, we could see this becoming a lot more commonplace and more and more people getting the organs they need,' he concluded.
