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First person to receive pig kidney dies 7 weeks after transplant

Richard Slayman, the first person to ever receive a kidney from a pig, has died, according to Massachusetts General Hospital, where the transplant was performed in March.In a statement late Saturday, the transplant team said they "have no indication" Slayman's death was the result of the transplant, which the hospital had heralded as a major scientific achievement.Slayman, 62, a systems manager for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, had already endured a transplant with a human kidney that had to be removed because of complications and was struggling with three-times-a-week dialysis when he agreed to the experimental pig-kidney procedure.When they announced that surgery had been successful, the Mass. General team said such animal-to-human transplants, known as xenotransplantation, offer the possibility of solving the human organ shortage and a potential option for the hundreds of thousands of Americans suffering on dialysis. Slayman appeared to be recovering...