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Post by David on Oct 11, 2016 22:09:33 GMT -5
Baby Imogen is youngest to have double lung transplant operation.
The surgery put another baby's lungs in Imogen's body and changed her life - with doctors urging more people to sign up as donors.
A baby girl from Brighton has become the youngest person in Britain to have a double lung transplant after receiving a pair of lungs just six inches long.
Imogen Bolton was just five-and-a-half months old and 9lb 15oz when she had the life-saving operation.
She needed the surgery after being diagnosed with an extremely rare and often fatal disease called Alveolar capillary dysplasia.
The disorder means tiny blood vessels in the lungs do not develop properly, causing serious breathing problems and a lack of oxygen in the blood that makes the heart work harder.
Imogen, who was born late last year, spent a month in London's Great Ormond Street Hospital in the spring before she was allowed home.
Her mum, Hayley, said doctors first thought she was "too young and too small" to have a transplant.
She told the Sun: "Then they told us the biggest issue would be finding a donor. When that finally happened, my legs went from under me."
Imogen's mum is planning to write to the parents of the baby whose lungs gave her daughter a new life.
"I've started the letter several times, but I feel grief," the 30-year-old told the newspaper.
"They lost their baby and it could have been me."
As well the youngest in Britain, Imogen is also believed to be the youngest in Europe to have the double lung transplant surgery.
news.sky.com/story/baby-imogen-is-youngest-to-have-double-lung-transplant-operation-10613229
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