A New Frontier in Kidney Transplants: What a Pig Kidney Means for Our Community

In November 2024, a 53-year-old woman from Alabama named Towana Looney became the third person in the United States to receive a kidney from a genetically modified pig, after waiting eight years for a human organ that never came. Her story shines a light on both the crisis of kidney disease and the hope that new science may bring to patients and families like those we serve at Kidney Konnect.

Towana’s Story: Eight Years of Waiting

Towana lived with kidney failure and spent years in the dialysis chair, just like so many people in our community. She had been on the transplant list for a long time, but high levels of antibodies in her blood made it extremely difficult to find a compatible human donor kidney. Even though she was highly ranked on the waiting list—partly because she had donated a kidney to her mother back in 1999—her chances of getting a human organ were still very low.

For Towana, the experimental pig kidney transplant was not a shortcut; it was her only real option to escape the grind and complications of long-term dialysis. After a seven-hour surgery at NYU Langone Health, she was well enough to leave the hospital just 11 days later, something that would have sounded impossible during her years of fatigue and nausea.

Life After the Pig Kidney

What happened after surgery is what matters most to patients: how she felt. The new kidney started making urine even before she woke up, and blood tests showed that it was clearing waste (creatinine) from her body, allowing her to live without dialysis for the first time in years. Her long-standing high blood pressure, which had stayed stubbornly high despite multiple medications, became controlled.

Towana described having more energy for everyday life—no longer needing to rest after every small task, able to cook, move around, and think about trips instead of treatment schedules. Her appetite returned after years of nausea, and she started dreaming about traveling, including a long-awaited visit to Disney World without worrying about arranging dialysis on the road. For her, this transplant wasn’t just a procedure; it was a glimpse of the life kidney patients hope for when they talk about “getting their life back.”

Why Pig Kidneys Are Being Considered

This kind of transplant—using an organ from an animal—is called a xenotransplant. In Towana’s case, the kidney came from a pig with 10 specific genetic changes designed to make its organ less likely to be attacked by the human immune system. The organ was provided by a company that raises genetically modified pigs specifically for transplant research, reflecting years of lab work aimed at making animal organs safer for people.

Doctors are pursuing this path because the current system cannot keep up with the need. More than 100,000 people in the United States are on organ transplant waiting lists, and over 90,000 of them are waiting for a kidney. Fewer than 30,000 kidneys are transplanted each year, and that number barely touches the hundreds of thousands of people living on dialysis nationwide. Many who could benefit from a transplant never even make it onto the list, and among those who do, only about half survive longer than five years on dialysis.

Impact on Black Kidney Patients

For Kidney Konnect, one of the most important parts of this story is who Towana is. She is a Black woman from Alabama, a state where kidney failure is common and where Black residents are disproportionately affected by hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease—key drivers of kidney damage.

Black patients make up about 35 percent of people on dialysis in the U.S., even though they represent only about 13.5 percent of the population. Towana’s experience reflects the intersection of medical innovation and health equity: the same communities that bear the highest burden of kidney disease also stand to benefit—or be left behind—as new technologies emerge. Her doctors fought for special FDA permission to perform this experimental surgery, motivated in part by how heavily kidney failure affects Black residents in their region.

What This Means for Patients and Families

Stories like Towana’s can feel distant, but they are really about everyday patients facing impossible choices. She spent years on dialysis, lost energy, and watched her life revolve around treatments, all while knowing that her chances at a human kidney were slipping away. When she learned about the possibility of a pig kidney, she pushed her team to explore it, asked questions, and ultimately chose to step into uncharted territory for a chance at more time and better quality of life.

This kind of courage drives medical progress and opens doors for other patients who may one day be offered similar options. Xenotransplants are still experimental, and there are real risks, unknowns, and ethical questions that scientists, regulators, and communities must continue to work through together. But Towana’s case suggests that, with careful research and community engagement, pig kidneys could eventually become one more tool to fight an organ shortage that has cost far too many lives.

Kidney Konnect’s Perspective and Next Steps

At Kidney Konnect, we see Towana’s journey as both a warning and a wake-up call. It reminds us how many people—especially in Black communities—are pushed to the edge by preventable kidney disease, delayed diagnosis, and limited access to transplants. It also reminds us that innovation must be paired with education, advocacy, and trust-building so patients and families can make informed decisions about emerging treatments.

Here is how we plan to respond as a community organization:

• Raise awareness about the organ shortage and what it means for people living on dialysis today, not just in the future.

• Educate our community about xenotransplants in plain language—what they are, why they are being studied, and what questions patients should ask their doctors.

• Highlight equity concerns, ensuring Black and other marginalized patients are included in conversations, protections, and benefits as this research advances.

• Support patients emotionally and practically as they navigate difficult decisions about dialysis, transplant waitlists, and emerging options like pig kidneys.

As Towana said when she encouraged other dialysis patients to stay informed, “The chair is not the last answer.” For Kidney Konnect, that message speaks directly to our mission: to help patients move from surviving in the dialysis chair to having real choices, real information, and real hope for healthier lives.

If you or a loved one is living with kidney disease and wants help understanding your options—including what you should be asking your care team—Kidney Konnect is here to walk with you.