A woman in the United States has achieved a medical milestone by living 61 days with a transplanted kidney from a pig!
As per Sky News, Towana Looney is now recognized as the longest-surviving individual to successfully receive and live with an organ from a pig.
She received an experimental pig kidney transplant in November after waiting for nearly eight years on the organ transplant list.
Towana gave one of her kidney to her mother in 1999 but unfortunately developed kidney failure later after facing complications during pregnancy.
As per the outlet, she was discharged from the hospital only 11 days after her transplant.
She is currently staying in New York for a month so that doctors can monitor her health before she returns to her home in Alabama.
Towana now feels like “Superwoman” after her successful transplant.
Dr Robert Montgomery from NYU Langone Health, who performed Towana’s transplant said, "If you saw her on the street, you would have no idea that she's the only person in the world walking around with a pig organ inside them that's functioning.”
"The truth is we don't really know what the next hurdles are because this is the first time we've gotten this far," Dr Montgomery added.
It is pertinent to note that genetically modified organs may help address the serious shortage of organs available for transplants.
In the UK, about 7,500 people are on the transplant waiting list with over 415 people died last year while waiting.
While, in the US, more than 100,000 people are waiting for a kidney transplant.
