Man With Baboon Cells Goes Home Aids Patient Looks Rested After Experimental Operation

Joking with friends and looking well-rested, AIDS patient Jeff Getty left a hospital Thursday, three weeks after receiving a risky infusion of baboon bone marrow that doctors hope will save his life.

It will be weeks or months before doctors can determine whether Getty’s body has adopted the baboon cells, which are naturally resistant to the AIDS virus.

Even with an uncertain prognosis, Getty said it’s so far, so good.

“To the naysayers who said that I would never recover from this procedure, well, here I am. And you were wrong,” the 38-year-old AIDS activist said at San Francisco General Hospital. “Now I’m ready to leave to go home. I’m ready to take my sailboat out this weekend.”

Getty’s face was full of color as he walked out of the hospital. He shook hands and laughed with friends and hospital workers, and cracked a smile when well-wishers shouted, “We love you, Jeff!”