2-year-old girl gets windpipe made from stem cells

[hue]

Source: USA TODAY News (AP)

CHICAGO (AP) — A 2-year-old girl born without a windpipe now has a new one grown from her own stem cells, the youngest patient in the world to benefit from the experimental treatment.

Hannah Warren has been unable to breathe, eat, drink or swallow on her own since she was born in South Korea in 2010. Until the operation at a U.S. hospital, she had spent her entire life in a hospital in Seoul. Doctors there told her parents there was no hope and they expected her to die.

The stem cells came from Hannah's bone marrow, extracted with a special needle inserted into her hip bone. They were seeded in a lab onto a plastic scaffold, where it took less than a week for them to multiply and create a new windpipe.

The windpipe was implanted April 9 in a nine-hour procedure.

Early signs indicate the windpipe is working, Hannah's doctors announced Tuesday, although she is still on a ventilator. They believe she will eventually be able to live at home and lead a normal life.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/30/girl-windpipe-stem-cells/2123881/

[Journeyman]

1. "These are the days of miracle and wonder. . ." ~ Paul Simon ("Boy in the Bubble")

[Javaman]

2. That is simply remarkable. nt

[riderinthestorm]

3. No words are adequate for this miracle! The wonders of modern medicine are extraordinary. K&R nt

[Ian David]

4. OMG, but they killed those millions of tiny babies that live in her bone marrow!

[marshall]

6. That whole stem cell argument is really a red herring

The really promising application of stem cell technology isn't coming from fetal stem cells, but from individuals' own stem cells, as in this case.

Still, it makes good fodder for the choice/anti-choice argument.

[babylonsister]

5. Fantastic!! nt

[Occulus]

7. "it took less than a week for them to multiply and create a new windpipe"

No, really,

[bitchkitty]

8. Dare I hope

that one day I will have a brand new liver?