Last January, Towana Looney (53) held the record for being the longest-lived human after receiving a kidney transplant. But after more than four months of living using a khinzir kidney, this organ had to be removed again due to complications that arose.
According to investigators from NYU Langone Health who performed the original surgery, Looney's body began rejecting the kidney he received after he was forced to reduce his dose of anti-rejection medication due to the infection. The organ removal procedure was carried out on April 4, making this xenotransplant experiment only last for 130 days. This is a longer record compared to the previous 61 days after the recipient of the Khinzir kidney died due to health factors unrelated to the organ transfer.
Looney was forced to return to dialysis treatment to continue living after surgery. He was chosen to be the fourth human to receive a khinzir kidney because he was not worthy of receiving a human kidney due to high blood pressure and high body antibodies causing rejection of the organ received.