The biggest surprise for me is that organ transplant from animals had been attempted in the past, I was sure it had not been done yet.

Apparently there was a newborn that lived for 21 days with baboon heart in 1984: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Fae

Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenotransplantation ) also lists one successful kidney transplant from chimpanzee in 1964:

> Out of 13 such transplants performed by Keith Reemtsma, one kidney recipient lived for 9 months, returning to work as a schoolteacher. At autopsy, the chimpanzee kidneys appeared normal and showed no signs of acute or chronic rejection.