Second Patient with Genetically Modified Pig Kidney Transplant Dies

A resident of New Jersey, who was the second patient in the world to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant, has died nearly three months after the organ transplant surgery, reports UPI.

NYU Langone Health in New York announced on Tuesday that 54-year-old Lisa Pizzano passed away on Sunday. Her transplanted kidney was removed on May 29 due to a lack of blood flow caused by heart medication.

Pizzano, who suffered from kidney and heart failure, received the pig kidney transplant on April 12, just eight days after undergoing heart pump surgery. According to surgeons at NYU Langone Health, this was the first case in which two different medical technologies were transplanted into a single patient.

“Lisa’s contribution to medicine, surgery, and xenotransplantation is impossible to overstate,” said Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, on Tuesday. “Her bravery has inspired hope for thousands of people suffering from end-stage kidney or heart failure who will soon have the opportunity to benefit from alternative organ transplants.”