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(CNN) --

Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital say they have successfully completed the world's first transplant of a genetically modified kidney from a pig to a living human.

The patient is Rick Slayman, a 62-year-old man from Weymouth, Massachusetts, who was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease.

In a written patient statement provided by the hospital, Slayman said he was a patient in the hospital's transplant program for 11 years.

This is not Slayman's first kidney transplant.

She received one before from a human in 2018 after living with diabetes and high blood pressure for many years.

That kidney began showing signs of failure five years later and resumed dialysis in 2023.

When he was diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease last year, he said his doctors suggested he try a pig kidney.

"I saw it not only as a way to help myself, but also as a way to provide hope to the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive," Slayman said in the written statement.

Dr. Tatsuo Kawai, director of the Legorreta Center for Clinical Transplant Tolerance and the surgeon who performed the operation, said the organ was exactly the same size as a human kidney.

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When the kidney was inserted, Kawai claimed it immediately “turned pink” and began producing urine.

Everyone in the operating room burst into applause.

"It was truly the most beautiful kidney I have ever seen in my life," Kawai said at a news conference.

At Thursday's news conference, doctors said Slayman is recovering well and is expected to be released from the hospital soon.

This is the third such xenotransplantation of a pig organ into a living human.

The first two transplants were hearts transplanted into living patients who had run out of other transplant options.

The organs were transplanted under special rules that allow the compassionate use of experimental therapies for patients in especially extreme situations.

Both patients died weeks after receiving their organs.

Nurse specialist Melissa Mattola-Kiatos removes the pig kidney from its box to prepare it for transplant.

Massachusetts General Hospital

The organ came from a pig that was genetically modified by the company eGenesis to make it more compatible with humans.

  • There are more people who need transplants than organ donors.

    Pigs could be a solution

"This successful procedure heralds a new era in medicine in which we have the potential to eliminate organ supply as a barrier to transplantation and realize our vision that no patient dies waiting for an organ," said Dr. Michael Curtis, CEO of eGenesis, in new launch.

"We are humbled by the courage and generosity of this patient, who is a true pioneer who has enabled this great advance in transplant science and medicine."

The need for organs far exceeds the quantity available.

Every day 17 people die in the United States waiting for an organ.

The kidney is an organ that is in short supply.

According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, approximately 27,000 kidneys were transplanted in 2023, but almost 89,000 people were on the waiting list for those organs.

Experts say xenotransplants, or transplants from animals to humans, could be a critical part of solving the donor organ shortage.

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