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REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — The first person to receive an
artificial windpipe says he almost refused the lifesaving
operation.
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Doctors in Sweden announced last week they had transplanted a
laboratory-made windpipe into Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene, a
36-year-old Eritrean. While studying at a university in Iceland, he
was diagnosed with advanced cancer and had a large tumor almost
completely blocking his windpipe.
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His Icelandic doctor referred Beyene to Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, a
surgeon at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute who has done windpipe
transplants in the past. Macchiarini suggested replacing Beyene’s
damaged windpipe with one made in a laboratory. “He explained that
this has never been done to human beings,” Beyene told the
Associated Press Thursday. “I said, ‘Oh my God.’ If this has not
been done, how can I agree to this?”
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But after talking to his Icelandic doctor and to his family,
including his wife and two children in Eritrea, Beyene agreed to
the revolutionary transplant. “Then I just prayed and accepted it,”
he said. “I was happy with the operation.”
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Beyene’s new windpipe was made using a spongy, plastic polymer to
speed cell growth. The device has previously been used in tear
ducts and blood vessels. Once the windpipe was constructed in the
laboratory, Beyene’s own stem cells were used to create millions of
other cells to line and coat the windpipe. That meant Beyene’s body
wouldn’t reject the new organ and that he doesn’t need to take
anti-rejection medicines.
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Other windpipe transplants have been performed using donor
windpipes and the patient’s own stem cells to cover the new
trachea, but Beyene’s case is the first to use a man-made
organ.
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Beyene recently arrived back in Reykjavik and is now recovering at
the national hospital. His doctors will run scans on his new
windpipe every six months for at least the next five years. They
will be monitoring Beyene for any possible complications, including
possible infections.
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Beyene isn’t sure when he will be released from the hospital but
hopes to return to Eritrea to see his family soon. “I am very eager
to see them and they are very eager to see me,” he said. “But it
depends on the health situation.”
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