At the military hospital in Zaporizhzhia, surgeons have been working around the clock to tend those wounded in the war
Representative image AFP / Ed JONES

An Alabama woman achieved a significant milestone on Saturday by becoming the longest-living recipient of a pig organ transplant. She has now been thriving with her new gene-edited pig kidney for 61 days, remaining healthy and full of energy. This breakthrough marks a key moment in the field of experimental organ transplants, as she surpasses previous records for survival with such a transplant.

Towana Looney, underwent surgery on Nov 25 and got discharged just 11 days after. After spending eight years on dialysis, doctors concluded that she would likely never receive a donated organ. She had developed unusually high levels of antibodies, which were specifically primed to attack a human kidney, severely complicating the possibility of a successful transplant.

Looney's vibrant recovery is seen as a hopeful sign in the pursuit of making animal-to-human organ transplants a viable option. "I'm superwoman," Towana Looney told The Associated Press, laughing about outpacing family members on long walks around New York City as she continues her recovery. "It's a new take on life."

In 1999, Looney donated a kidney to her mother. However, later complications during pregnancy led to high blood pressure, which in turn damaged her remaining kidney. This eventually caused it to fail, a condition that is exceptionally rare among living kidney donors.

To address the growing shortage of transplantable human organs, scientists are genetically modifying pigs to make their organs more suitable for human transplantation. With more than 100,000 people on the U.S. transplant list, most of whom need kidneys, and thousands dying while waiting, this breakthrough could offer a potential solution to the crisis and help meet the critical demand for organ donations.

So far, only four other Americans have undergone the highly experimental procedure of receiving gene-edited pig organs — two hearts and two kidneys. Unfortunately, none of those recipients survived for more than two months, making Looney's success all the more significant as it suggests potential progress in this groundbreaking medical field.