Toddler with lab-made windpipe dies
A 2-year-old girl who was implanted with a windpipe grown from her own stem cells has died. Hannah Warren, who was born without a windpipe, was the youngest patient in the world to benefit from the experimental treatment.
Hospital spokeswoman Shelli Dankoff says Hannah died Saturday at Children's Hospital of Illinois in Peoria. Her family has asked for privacy.
The hospital says in a statement that Hannah couldn't "overcome additional health issues that were identified as her care progressed."
The stem cells came from Hannah's bone marrow. They were seeded in a lab onto a plastic scaffold, where it took a few days for them to multiply and create a new windpipe, which was implanted April 9.
Hannah was born in South Korea and traveled to Illinois for the surgery.
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