Richard “Rick” Slayman: Man who received first pig kidney transplant dies, his death came just two weeks after his surgery. latest news on townflex

  • roguetrick@kbin.social
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    7 months ago

    Suffering from end-stage kidney disease, Richard underwent the groundbreaking procedure in March, only to depart from this world merely two months post-surgery.

    The news of his demise was confirmed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the medical facility behind the historic transplant, on Saturday.

    Either an AI wrote this or somebody needs to take the author’s fucking thesaurus. He has ceased to be. He’s shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain, and joined the choir invisible. He is an Ex-pig kidney transplant recipient.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Yeah, but he got a human heart in 2018 and was diabetic.

      He wasn’t going to live long regardless, but what matters is what killed him and the source is pretty bad.

      Two months isn’t great and it’s not terrible, so the details is what matters.

      • ____@infosec.pub
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        7 months ago

        That source is garbage.

        Seems to be based on what amounts to a single “does not currently appear that the procedure itself killed him” statement from MGH, which is generally respected.

        I will wait for the actual journal article that (I sincerely hope) is yet to come.

        Five years, and an additional two months following consent from a highly experimental and unique procedure that he appears to have given informed consent for because he would otherwise have died sooner beats the hell out of five years without the two months.

        I could make a hell of a lot of amends in sixty days, knowing it was all I had, that I’ve had trouble making in four plus decades…. Which would make the end exponentially more peaceful and pleasant.

        Anything that gives me that much time is a net positive. Not going to bother with some of the usual surgical recovery stuff if I am fully informed at that point but… Don’t want to die wishing I had had time to make that one phone call or txt that I didn’t quite get to make because we don’t get to choose the moment.

        Ten yrs from now hewill be a hero for undergoing the procedure that leads to real progress.

  • Alsjemenou
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    6 months ago

    It’s incredible that this was viable in the first place. Of course these type of experimental surgeries are done on extremely sick people at the end stage of normal care. So, actually two months is nothing to scoff at. It means a successful operation. I hope autopsy will give insight. What this man did is incredibly brave and important for mankind. Hero in my books.

    • vintageballs@feddit.de
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      6 months ago

      It was two weeks though.

      Edit: nevermind, OP says two weeks, article says march. My bad.

  • Amoxtli@thelemmy.club
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    6 months ago

    Isn’t it cheaper to harvest organs from cadavers instead of spending millions in figuring how to put pig parts into humans? Then you ask why US healthcare is so expensive.

    • Soulfulginger@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Dr. Death was about gross negligence in medicine and the failure of the medical system to prevent unqualified doctors from making it through the system. There’s no evidence that this study has anything to do with that

  • Nachorella@lemmy.sdf.org
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    6 months ago

    I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand that’s pretty interesting and like, hurray for saving lives. But on the other hand it seems kind of incredibly messed up to raise animals as sacrificial organ sacks.

    • otp@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      I’m going with the first hand, no question. Human lives > animal lives. Sorry animals.

      • BrundleFly2077@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        Said the animal? I forget who said that you can tell a lot about a society based solely on how it treats its animals.

        • otp@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          Providing organs to those in need sounds like pretty great treatment!

          • BrundleFly2077@sh.itjust.works
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            6 months ago

            Genuinely agree with you. I dunno. I just feel like I’d prefer we grew them rather than harvested them at this point.

            I just wanted to point out that I don’t think it should be as cut and dry as a human > animal.

            • otp@sh.itjust.works
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              6 months ago

              Oh, 100%. I imagine the research involved in this also pushes forward advances like growing organs.

              If I had to make a choice between a pig dying to give an organ to a human in need, or a human dying and the pig surviving, then I’d choose the human living every time. So for me, it’s as cut and dry (in that context) as human > animal.

              If we don’t need to kill animals to save humans because we can grow organs, then great! Do that instead. No question asked there, either. (Assuming they’d work equally as well etcetc)

              FWIW, I’m also very excited for lab-grown meat and support the idea of eating less meat. I’m not about hating animals or devaluing their lives. It’s just that humans living longer, healthier lives is a bigger priority to me than not harvesting animal organs, and I’m sorry if it sounds grotesque. I recognize it might be morbid, but it’s still an easy decision for me.

              • Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                6 months ago

                Sorta related, I’ve talked about humans eating less meat and how vegetarians/vegans have the wrong approach. It’s usually the animal cruilty or eat healthier approach with them, I’ve been saying that to ease people into the vegetarian camp they need to not try to make it a thing.

                Baby steps, the way I go about it is I cook my friends delicious food and it just happens to be vegetarian. If you can get them to like a food and want the recipe it’s a win, one less meatless meal they’ll have occasionally. Rice and repeat and hopefully one day they’ll have a handful of meatless meals a week.

                I’m Mexican and we have a ton of flavorful vegetarian meals, my personally favorite dish is enchiladas de queso y mole poblano. Im not even vegetarian or vegan, I just decided one day that I should cut some meat out of my diet, after checking what I’m currently eating it turns out I already eat at least 6 meatless meals a week… All cause we just have a lot of really good vegetarian meals in my culture.

                • otp@sh.itjust.works
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                  6 months ago

                  Gonna share the recipe? Or a link to a similar one? Haha

                  (I don’t trust myself to be able to tell an authentic one from a whitewashed imitation, lol)

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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                  6 months ago

                  I’m Mexican and we have a ton of flavorful vegetarian meals

                  While I agree, the worst restaurant I have ever been to was a vegan “Mexican” restaurant. The food was cooked without any spices or even salt! You were supposed to put this foul-smelling brown sauce of their own creation, which we declined to do. It was the most bland, tasteless food I have ever had in my life. If I wasn’t so against wasting food if at all possible, I wouldn’t have choked it down.

                  I hope that doesn’t turn too many people off of actually decent vegetarian Mexican food considering it was in the middle of L.A.

    • Crampon@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      You’re gonna be blown away when you learn how animals treat each other in the wild.

      It’s easy to label others from a fictional high ground. If faced with death or dead pig im sure most people choose dead pig.

      • Nachorella@lemmy.sdf.org
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        6 months ago

        I don’t care how they treat each other, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard. And I’m not labelling anyone here, I just said I had mixed feelings about it.

        • Lumisal@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          It’s easier to hold a higher standard when you have all your needs met.

          Less so when you’re poked with giant needles 3 times a week while also having to be careful to not drown because you drank a tad too much water.

          • Nachorella@lemmy.sdf.org
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            6 months ago

            I literally don’t even know what you’re trying to say, I haven’t cast any judgements or told anyone to do anything. Get off your soapbox.

            • Lumisal@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              What I’m describing is Kidney failure and dialysis - well, part of it, it’s even worse than that - the things the doctors and researchers that were involved in doing this transplant are trying to cure.

              The thing you say we should allow humans to go through in the name of holding ourselves to a “higher standard”.

              • Nachorella@lemmy.sdf.org
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                6 months ago

                That’s not what I was trying to say. I was specifically referring to you talking about how animals treat each other.

                I don’t want anyone to suffer which is why I have mixed feelings about this.

                edit: actually go fuck yourself, I don’t care, you’ve continuously put words in my mouth and obviously don’t care about having a reasonable conversation.

        • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          And so we do! I doubt even an organ pig is going to be eviscerated alive, run to death, or asphyxiated by a bunch of sharp teeth around the neck.

      • Nachorella@lemmy.sdf.org
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        6 months ago

        They might get better treatment in these cases but I don’t think it would be different. I’m vegan if that helps understand my point of view.

      • chetradley@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        From my perspective, raising and killing an animal because you need to in order to survive is more forgivable than doing so just because you enjoy the taste.