It’s incredibly rare for living donors to develop kidney failure although those who do are given extra priority on the transplant list. But Looney couldn’t get a match because she had developed antibodies abnormally primed to attack another human kidney

An Alabama woman is recovering well after receiving a pig kidney transplant last month.

Towana Looney is the fifth American given a gene-edited pig organ, and notably isn’t as sick as prior recipients who died within two months of receiving a pig kidney or heart, the Associated Press reported. “It’s like a new beginning,” Looney, 53, told AP.

Right away, “the energy I had was amazing. To have a working kidney — and to feel it — is unbelievable.” Looney, who only had one remaining kidney after donating a kidney to her mother in 1999, faced complications during pregnancy caused high blood pressure that caused her kidney to fail.

The world’s first gene-edited pig kidney transplants went to two sicker patients last spring, at Massachusetts General Hospital and NYU ( 
Image:
AFP via Getty Images)
It’s incredibly rare for living donors to develop kidney failure although those who do are given extra priority on the transplant list. But Looney couldn’t get a match because she had developed antibodies abnormally primed to attack another human kidney.

Then Looney heard about pig kidney research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and told Dr. Jayme Locke she’d like to try one. In April 2023, Locke filed an FDA application seeking an emergency experiment, under rules for people like Looney who are out of options.

The FDA didn’t agree right away. Instead, the world’s first gene-edited pig kidney transplants went to two sicker patients last spring, at Massachusetts General Hospital and NYU. Both also had serious heart disease. The Boston patient recovered enough to spend about a month at home before dying of sudden cardiac arrest deemed unrelated to the pig kidney. NYU’s patient had heart complications that damaged her pig kidney, forcing its removal, and she later died.

Looney was discharged from the hospital just 11 days after surgery to continue recovery in a nearby apartment although temporarily readmitted this week while her medications are adjusted ( 
Image:
AFP via Getty Images)
The FDA eventually allowed her transplant at NYU, where Locke collaborated with Dr. Robert Montgomery of NYU Langone Health, who led the highly experimental procedure. Even if her new organ fails, doctors can learn from it, Looney told the AP: “You don’t know if it’s going to work or not until you try.”

Looney is recuperating well after her transplant, which was announced Tuesday. She was discharged from the hospital just 11 days after surgery to continue recovery in a nearby apartment although temporarily readmitted this week while her medications are adjusted.

Doctors expect her to return home to Alabama in three months. If the pig kidney were to fail, she could begin dialysis again.

“To see hope restored to her and her family is extraordinary,” said Dr. Jayme Locke. During a visit last week with Locke, who now works for the federal government, Looney hugged her longtime doctor, saying, “Thank you for not giving up on me.”

“Never,” Locke responded.