'I'm awesome': Alabama woman with pig organ inside her thrives two months after transplant

After two months of living with a pig organ inside her, an Alabama woman shows no signs of slowing down post-transplant.

“I’m awesome,” Toan Looney said. Associated PressLaughing about outrunning family members on long walks around New York City as he continues to recover. “It’s a new life.”

Looney’s vibrant recovery is a morale booster in the effort to bridge the animal-human bond. Only four other Americans have received highly experimental transplants of gene-edited pig organs—two hearts and two kidneys—and none have lived more than two months.

He has now set a record of living 61 days post-transplant.

Dr. Robert Montgomery of Nyu Langone Health, who led Looney’s transplant, said: “If you saw him on the street, you wouldn’t think he was the only person in the world with a pig organ inside them that works. It’s moving.”

Montgomery called Looney’s kidney function “perfectly normal.” Doctors hope he can leave New York, where he is temporarily living for post-transplant checkups, in about a month.

“We’re quite optimistic that this will continue to work and work well for, you know, a significant period of time,” he said.

Towana Looney, who received a pig kidney transplant in November 2024, notes about her recovery with Dr. Jeffrey Stern at NYU Langone Health in New York. He lived for 61 days with the organ of a pig inside him — Towana Looney, who received a pig kidney transplant in November 2024, notes about her recovery with Dr. Jeffrey Stern at NYU Langone Health in New York. He lived for 61 days with a pig organ inside him (AP)

Scientists are genetically modifying pigs so their organs are more humane to address the severe shortage of human transplantable organs. More than 100,000 people are on the US transplant list, most of whom need a kidney, and thousands die waiting.

Pig organ transplants have so far been “compassionate” cases, with FDA trials only possible under certain circumstances for people outside of other options.

And the handful of hospitals that are trying them have information about what has worked and what hasn’t, in preparation for the world’s first formal studies of xenograft transplants, expected to begin this year. United Therapeutics, which supplied Looney’s kidney, recently applied to the Food and Drug Administration for permission to begin the trial.

Dr. Tatsuo Kawai of Massachusetts General Hospital, who led the world’s first pig kidney transplant last year and worked with another pig developer, Egenesis, said:

Lonnie was much healthier than previous patients, Kawai noted, so his progress will help inform future efforts. “We have to learn from each other,” he said.

Lonnie donated a kidney to his mother in 1999. Pregnancy complications later caused high blood pressure, which damaged her remaining kidney, which eventually failed, something incredibly rare among living donors. He spent eight years on dialysis before doctors concluded he would likely never receive a donated organ—he had developed abnormally high levels of antibodies to attack another human kidney.

So Looney, 53, looked up the pig experiment. No one knew how it would work in someone “highly sensitive” with hyperactive antibodies.

Released just 11 days after surgery Nov. 25, Montgomery’s team has been closely monitoring his recovery through blood tests and other measurements. About three weeks after the transplant, they got subtle signs that it was being rejected—signs they’ve learned to look for thanks to a 2023 experiment in which a pig kidney worked inside a dead man for 61 days. whose body has been donated for research.

Montgomery said they successfully treated Lonnie and since then there has been no sign of rejection—and a few weeks ago he met the family behind that deceased and body investigation.

“It’s really nice to know that the decision I made to apply my brother to NYU was the right one and it’s helping people,” said Mary Miller Duffy, of Newburgh, New York.

Four other Americans have received highly experimental transplants of gene-edited pig organs—two hearts and two kidneys—and none have lived more than two months. (AFP via Getty Images)

Lonnie, in turn, is trying to help others, serving what Montgomery calls an ambassador for people who have reached out to him through social media, distressed by the long wait for a transplant and wondering about pig kidneys. shares itself.

According to him, one was considered in another hospital in another hospital, but he was afraid and was afraid of the question of whether to continue.

“I didn’t want to push him to do it or not,” Looney said. Instead, he asked her if she was religious and asked her to pray, “put your faith aside, what your heart tells you.”

“I love talking to people, I love helping people,” he added. “I want to be, like some educational training” for scientists to help others.

There’s no way to predict if Looney’s new kidney will work, but if it fails, he could get dialysis again.

“The truth is, we don’t really know what the next hurdles are because this is the first time we’ve had it,” Montgomery said. “We have to keep looking at him.”