WEDNESDAY, Sept. 9, 2026 (HealthDay News) — A genetically altered pig kidney helped keep a man alive for one year while he awaited a permanent human organ transplant, a new paper says.

Kidney failure patient Tim Andrews, 67, successfully lived with a pig kidney transplant between January 2025 and January 2026, researchers reported recently in The Lancet.

The pig kidney worked well enough that Andrews needed no dialysis for 271 days during that period, researchers said. After that, the animal organ operated with support from dialysis until it was successfully replaced by a human donation.

Andrews’ case represents the longest dialysis-free survival following the transplant of a pig kidney into a human being, said his doctors at Mass General Brigham in Boston.

No previous studies have documented animal organ transplant survival beyond two months, or have noted such an organ serving as a bridge until a human organ became available, researchers said.

“The organ shortage is the greatest crisis we have right now in transplantation,” lead researcher Dr. Leonardo Riella, a senior investigator with the Center for Transplantation Sciences at Mass General Brigham, said in a news release.

At any given time, nearly 90,000 Americans are waiting for a kidney transplant, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. About 11 people a day die while awaiting a kidney donation.

“We know that the best treatment option for patients with end-stage kidney disease who have developed renal failure is transplantation, but we simply don’t have enough human organs to transplant in a timely manner,” Riella said.

“Our vision is that xenotransplantation could help address this gap — initially as a bridge to get patients off dialysis while they wait for a human donor kidney, and potentially, as we establish long-term safety and durability, as a destination therapy in its own right,” he continued.

The world’s first pig kidney transplant into a living human took place in 2024 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. That patient survived 52 days before dying of heart problems unrelated to the transplant, researchers said.

Andrews received his pig kidney on Jan. 25, 2025. The pig kidney functioned immediately, and an early episode of organ rejection was resolved with treatment, researchers reported.

However, after six months the pig kidney had become damaged by blood clots and was progressing toward failure itself, researchers said.

A human kidney became available just in time to save Andrews, researchers said.

Researchers praised Andrews for his participation in the experimental surgery.

“The patients are the true pioneers here,” Riella said. “By stepping forward and being willing to participate in these early-stage studies, they are advancing the science. Without their trust and courage, we would not be able to do what we do.”

In an interview with The New York Times, Andrews said he was now more fit than he had been in a long time. He swims, kayaks and enjoys short bike rides. His appetite, dampened during dialysis, has returned.

"I went from thinking I had months, maybe a year, because I just felt so bad," he told The Times of his time on dialysis, adding that his transplants have changed the way he looks at life.

"When you say 'stop and smell the roses,' that’s my life now," Andrews said. "I look at everything and go 'wow.' "

More information

The United Network for Organ Sharing has more on the U.S. kidney donation shortage.

SOURCES: Mass General Brigham, news release, Sept. 3, 2026; The Lancet, Sept. 3, 2026; The New York Times, Sept. 3, 2026

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