Pioneering surgery to rebuild an 11-year-old boy's windpipe using his own stem cells was hailed a success today as he prepared to leave hospital.
Ciaran Finn-Lynch became the first child in the world to undergo the pioneering trachea transplant in March and is now preparing to return home to Northern Ireland.
Doctors at Great Ormond Street hospital in London took stem cells from the youngster's bone marrow and injected them into a donor windpipe which had been stripped of its own cells.
They implanted the organ and allowed the stem cells to transform themselves in his own body, avoiding the potential problem of Ciaran's immune system rejecting the organ.
Great Ormond Street said that the transplant was considered a success four weeks ago after doctors proved the blood supply had returned to the trachea.
Ciaran's parents, Colleen and Paul, now hope to take him home for the first time since November. They said the last few months had been a "rollercoaster" and paid tribute to the surgeons who saved their son.
Read more at The Guardian
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