First-Ever Pig Kidney and Heart Pump Transplant Patient Dies 47 Days After Surgery

A grandmother who became the first person ever to receive both a mechanical heart pump and a gene-edited pig kidney has died 47 days after surgery, according to health officials who performed the surgeries. Lisa Pisano, 54, was on the verge of death from kidney and heart failure when she was fitted by surgeons at NYU Langone Health with a heart pump—called a left ventricular assist device or LVAD—on April 4. She then underwent the transplant—which came from a pig that had been genetically modified so that its organs would be less likely to destroy her immune system—on April 12. The New Jersey native’s failed heart made her ineligible for a traditional kidney transplant....