Pig kidney works for 2 months in human, setting new medical record

US doctors managed to surgically put a pig’s kidney into a human and made it work normally for two months, marking the longest documented case of a xenotransplant of its kind.

Doctors were seen lining up hospital corridors as the brain-dead patient's body was brought out of the operation theatre. Surgeons had removed the pig’s kidney after the experiment concluded.

The body of Maurice “Mo” Miller was donated to the hospital after he was declared brain-dead. He was reportedly suffering from a brain tumour previously.

“It’s a combination of excitement and relief,” Dr. Robert Montgomery, the transplant surgeon who led the experiment, told The Associated Press.

“Two months is a lot to have a pig kidney in this good a condition. That gives you a lot of confidence” for the next attempts,” he added.

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Last year, University of Maryland surgeons tried to save a dying man with a pig heart –- but he survived only two months as the organ failed for reasons that aren’t completely clear.