Amazing New Stem Cell Transplant
I am continually amazed at the medical advances that are in the news every day. I know there are controversies. Some question whether we should even be testing some things. But, to the parents of one little boy in the UK, what matters is their son is alive and healthy! In order to save his life, doctors used experimental stem cell techniques to “grow” a new trachea for Ciaran Finn-Lynch.
Ciaran Finn-Lynch, the now 13-year-old boy from the UK who the world’s first child to receive the stem cell trachea transplant, is breathing normally and no longer needs anti-rejection medication, researchers reported in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Lancet.
Researchers at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and the University College London, stripped cells from a donor trachea and then used Ciaran’s own bone marrow stem cells to rebuild the airways in the body. They also infused growth proteins to generate the tissue lining.
I rejoice with his family in his recovery and hope that he has a long and wonderful life!!
