A 62-year-old man suffering from end-stage renal disease has become the first living recipient of a kidney transplant from a genetically modified pig, surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital announced on Thursday, March 21.The four-hour surgery, performed at the Boston hospital on March 16, marks a “major milestone in the quest to provide more readily available organs to patients,” a press statement said.The transplant recipient, Weymouth resident Richard Slayman, is recovering well and is expected to be discharged soon, the statement said.“The real hero today is the patient," Joren C Madsen, Director of the MGH Transplant Center said. “This pioneering surgery, once deemed unimaginable, would not have been possible without his courage and willingness to embark on a journey into uncharted medical territory,” Madsen said.Photos released by the hospital show health care workers handling the kidney, extracted from a pig that had been genetically modified to remove potentially harmful genes and prevent viruses. Credit: Massachusetts General Hospital via Storyful