Windpipe transplant success in UK child

A 10-year-old British boy has become the first child to undergo a windpipe transplant with an organ crafted from his own stem cells.

It is hoped that using the boy's own tissue in the nine-hour operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital will cut the risk of rejection.

The world's first tissue-engineered windpipe transplant was done in Spain in 2008 but with a shorter graft.

Doctors say the boy is doing well and breathing normally.

"It is the first time a child has received stem cell organ treatment, and it's the longest airway that has ever been replaced" - Professor Martin Birchall, University College London