Stem Cells Make Artificial Windpipe, Saves Toddler's Life After Being Born Without One

In a medical miracle case, a 2-year-old girl born without a windpipe has a new one grown from her own stem cells, making her the youngest patient in the world to undergo the new experimental surgery.

Born in South Korea in 2010, Hannah Warren has been unable to breathe, eat, drink, or swallow on her own and has spent her entire life in hospital, according to the Associated Press. Her parents brought her to the Children's Hospital of Illinois in Peoria for the life-changing surgery.

Out of a random act of kindness from Dr. Mark Holterman - a pediatric surgeon at Children's Hospital of Illinois - his involvement made it possible to send young Warren and her family to the U.S., waiving all hospital costs; Holterman met the family while on a business trip at the hospital in South Korea and was moved to take action.

They used her stem cells to create the windpipe tube that is about 3 inches (8 cm) long and links her mouth and throat to her lungs.

It was grown from a special type of cell in the body called stem cells - they are building block cells which can grow into any type of cell in the body.

It took less than a week for the cells taken from her leg to make the tube but took nine hours of complicated surgery to put it in place.

"We feel like she's reborn," said Hannah's father, Darryl Warren.

"They hope that she can do everything that a normal child can do but it's going to take time. This is a brand new road that all of us are on," he said in a telephone interview. "This is her only chance but she's got a fantastic one and an unbelievable one."

Three weeks after the surgery, she's active and able to even taste her first lollipop. Doctors believe in a few months, she will be able to go home for the first time and may even be able to talk, according to the report.