2-Year-Old Who Received Stem Cell-Grown Trachea Dies After Additional Complications
![Hannah Warren, the artifical trachea recipient.](https://d.medicaldaily.com/en/full/227185/hannah-warren-artifical-trachea-recipient.jpg?w=640&f=9f4efb77a1eca7b12b985fb73f827ed1)
The toddler who recently received an artificial trachea grown from her own stem cells has died, according to USA Today.
Hospital spokeswoman Shelli Dankoff said that 2-year-old Hannah Warren, who became the youngest person ever to receive the experimental implant, was unable to overcome additional complications that arose following the surgery. On Saturday, she sadly passed away at Children’s Hospital of Illinois in Peoria.
"She is a pioneer in stem-cell technology and her impact will reach all corners of our beautiful Earth. Her new trachea was performing well, but her lungs went from fairly good, to weak, to poor,” family members wrote in their fundraising blog. "We will forever miss her infectious personality and miraculous strength and spirit."
Hannah, who was born in South Korea, traveled to Illinois for the surgery after her family was introduced to Paolo Macchiarini and Mark Holterman – two doctors involved in an ongoing scientific endeavor to develop human organs and tissues from a patient’s stem cells.
After collecting stem cells from Hannah’s bone marrow, doctors were able to seed them onto a plastic scaffold, where they gradually multiplied. On April 9, she received her new windpipe. While similar methods have previously been used to engineer bladders, urethras and veins, the procedure marked the first time that a trachea has been grown with nothing but synthetic material and cells collected from the patient.
“Although regenerative medicine remains in the early stages for pediatric patients, progress is being made. Hannah, and the physicians caring for her, helped advance this area of medical practice which is only at its very beginning stages," the hospital said in a statement. "Even at this time of loss and grief, we, and Hannah's family, take comfort in the knowledge that the efforts of her physicians and the care team working with them will benefit and serve other children and adults in the years to come."
Hannah was born with tracheal agenesis – a rare condition that is usually fatal.