Close menu

Learning English from the News

Upper intermediate level

Man survives longest ever pig kidney transplant

Episode 260909 / 09 Sep 2026

(Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Too hard? Try something easier.

Too easy? Try something harder.

The story

Tim Andrews from New Hampshire in the United States was aged 66 when he found out that he’d developed kidney disease linked to type 2 diabetes.

At that time, he was at the end-stage of the disease, meaning that he was in the final, most severe phase. Not much can be done at this stage, and many people in this situation are waiting for a replacement human kidney. There is shortage of human donor kidneys.

Andrews received a pig kidney, and it worked inside him for 271 days, the longest on record, US doctors say. However, the pig organ eventually failed and was removed so Andrews needed some dialysis, a medical treatment where a machine functions like a kidney.

He then received a human kidney transplant 82 days later.

News headlines 

Pig kidneys successfully transplanted into humans
Financial Times

First-of-its-kind pig kidney keeps US man off dialysis for 271 days
Türkiye Today

Man lived with pig kidney as 'bridge' before human transplant
Euronews

Click to download a worksheet.

Key words and phrases

transplant
move or be moved from one place to another

  • The donor heart was transplanted in a seven-hour operation.

first-of-its-kind
completely original and has never existed or happened before

  • The city launched a first-of-its-kind electric bus network that runs entirely on solar power.

bridge
a temporary solution that helps someone get from one stage to another

  • Her internship acted as a bridge between university and her dream career.

Subscribe to our newsletter.
Learn more about health

Next

If you find learning English from the news useful, find more programmes here. 

Find all our latest programmes.

Try this: Deadly Ebola virus spreads

Explore our Health topic page.

최신 Learning English from the News

자료 가주가기

PDF 다운로드
오디오 다운로드

팟캐스트

Learning English from the News