On Apr. 24, 2024, surgeons at New York University Langone Health announced they had performed the first combined mechanical heart pump and gene-edited pig kidney transplant surgery. The patient was a 54-year-old woman with heart and kidney failure, and the procedure represents a confluence of advances that showcase the possibility and hope of modern medicine.

Doctors performed this feat in two stages: first surgically implanting the heart pump days before embarking on the landmark transplant, which included a gene-edited pig kidney and a pig’s thymus gland to aid against rejection. Before the procedure, patient Lisa Pisano, a New Jersey native, faced heart failure and end-stage kidney disease that required routine dialysis. She was not a candidate for heart and kidney transplant because several chronic medical conditions significantly reduced the likelihood of a good outcome and there aren’t enough organs for those in need.

Despite these adversities, Pisano has thrived from the love of her grandchildren and eagerly wants to watch them grow up.

To date, there have been no documented instances of anyone with a mechanical heart pump receiving an organ transplant of any kind. It is only the second transplant of a gene-edited pig kidney into a living person, and the first with the thymus combined.

Nearly 104,000 people are on the waiting list for a transplant, with 89,360 of those waiting for a kidney. Nearly 808,000 people in the United States have end-stage kidney disease, but only about 27,000 were able to receive a transplant last year.