A 1-year-old Spanish baby girl has received the world’s first intestinal transplant, Madrid’s La Paz hospital said on Tuesday.
“The child has now been discharged and is in perfect condition at home with her parents,” the hospital said in a statement.
The infant received the organ through asystolic donation, which means it came from a donor at the end of their life.
According to the statement, this type of donation ensures that “the organ to be transplanted does not deteriorate.”
The procedure had not before been utilised for the intestine since it was assumed that it was not possible for this organ, “despite the fact that 30% of applicants die on the waiting list,” according to the hospital.
“The intestine is a lymphoid organ closely linked to the person’s immune system which, under normal conditions, is colonised by multiple germs,” the statement added.
This means that the risk of “rejection and the possibility of infection” is higher than in other transplants.
It took three years of study and trials by numerous teams at the hospital to prove that such a procedure was feasible.
The infant, Emma, had been diagnosed with intestinal failure when she was just one month old because her intestine was too short, and her health rapidly deteriorated until receiving the multi-visceral transplant.
Aside from the intestine, Emma also received a new liver, stomach, spleen, and pancreas.
“The good news is that life goes on, that Emma is very brave and proving every day that she wants to keep on living,” her mother told reporters before thanking the donor’s family and the doctors. She said Emma is now 17 months old.
Spain is a global leader in organ transplants, with over 102 of them per million inhabitants performed in 2021, a rate only surpassed by the United States, according to figures from the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation.
It also accounted for 5% of global organ donations in 2021, while having just 0.6% of the world’s population.