https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pig-kidney-works-record-271-days-body-surviving-american-rcna596101A New Hampshire man, at death’s door 1 ½ years ago, said Friday he could now have “decades” left after surviving a record 271 days with a transplanted pig kidney — in a procedure that could offer new hope to countless other patients.
When Tim Andrews and doctors first started discussing a pig transplant in late 2024, the patient with end-stage kidney failure said he was convinced death was near.
But Andrews, 68, wanted to try this procedure, if just for the findings and data it could yield for researchers.
“I didn’t think I was going to live through it, to be honest. But I wanted to do it for humanity,” he told NBC News on Friday.
“I realized, OK, I’m a dead man. I’m a dead man walking. So I said to myself, ‘What have I done? What have I done with my life? This is an opportunity for me to do something that most people don’t get an opportunity to do, and that’s to help humanity.’”
