Adorable 2-Year-Old Girl Gets a Stem Cell Windpipe

By Meher Ahmad | April 30, 2013 | 10:20pm

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Three cheers for science! Woo, scientists and stem cells! Two-year-old Hannah Warren was born in South Korea without a windpipe. Facing immense health issues, she wasn’t expected to live much longer because of her condition. But thanks to the miracle of science and group of badass surgeons and pediatricians, Hannah has a new windpipe that was grown from stem cells taken from her bone marrow. She’s the youngest patient in the world to have the treatment successfully implemented.

The new windpipe allows for Hannah to breathe without the aid of a tube in her mouth, which she’s had to live with since she was born, although she is still on a ventilator while she recovers. Hannah’s dad, Darryl Warren, said she’s also enjoying her first taste of food: a couple licks of a lollipop. Apparently, she likes Korean lollipops better than American ones: “I ask her, ‘Is it good,” said Warren, “and she immediately nods her head.” And now I’m going to lick a lollipop and sob gratefully.