Rick Slayman, the world's first person to receive a genetically edited kidney transplant from a pig, died nearly two months after the transplant operation.

Slayman, 62, received the kidney in March at Massachusetts General Hospital after being diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease last year.

However, the hospital has insisted there is no indication his death was a result of the transplant. After undergoing a four-hour surgery at the recommendation of his doctors, Slayman, a Massachusetts transportation department manager, was discharged from the hospital in April.

After the surgery, doctors said they believed the new kidney could last for years. They also acknowledged that many cases of animal-to-human transplants are unknown.

Massachusetts General said in a statement,Sleman's family said he was a kind person who was completely devoted to the people in his life. In a statement to CNN, the family said that our family is deeply saddened by the sudden death of our beloved Rick, but it is a great relief to know that he inspired so many people. Millions of people around the world have come to know Rick's story. The hope he has instilled in the minds of patients desperately waiting for a transplant has brought us joy that still feels.

Sleiman had been a patient in the hospital's transplant program for 11 years. After suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure for several years, he received a kidney from a human donor in 2018. Five years later, the kidney began showing signs of failure and he resumed dialysis in 2023.

Sleeman, the first living person to receive a pig kidney transplant, wrote in a statement,

This unprecedented operation was hailed as a medical milestone in March by Dr. Tatsuo Kawai, director of the Legorreta Center for Clinical Transplant Tolerance.

The need for organs, in particular, far outweighs the number available in the U.S. According to the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network, more than 100,000 people are currently waiting for an organ donation, CNN reports.

Experts have long been researching how to safely and successfully transplant animal organs into people, a move they say could help solve the organ shortage.

Before Slayman's case, only two transplants had been completed using pig organs - both were heart transplants. Both patients died a few weeks after receiving the hearts.