Baby breathes on her own for first time after double lung transplant
The girl should be discharged from the hospital in the next few days.
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A six-month-old girl born with a life-threatening lung condition has taken her first breath on her own after undergoing a double lung transplant.
Kylie Overfield was put on a ventilator shortly after her birth on 20 November 2023. She has surfactant protein B deficiency, a rare genetic condition that causes abnormalities in the lining of the lungs and makes breathing difficult.
The condition, which affects about one in a million newborns worldwide, can lead to respiratory failure. Kylie’s case was so severe that doctors initially did not think she would survive.
However, by January, she was strong enough to leave the hospital where she was born in Virginia and was transferred to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
“If she was fighting, I was never going to stop fighting,” her mother, Ashley Overfield, told Good Morning America.
A lung transplant was Kylie’s best chance at survival. She was placed on the waiting list and on 17 April she had the surgery. The 11-hour operation was performed by a team of more than a dozen doctors and nurses, who also repaired a hole in her heart.
Kylie has now taken her first breath on her own and is expected to be discharged from hospital in the coming days. “She has a life now. She has a chance,” said Ashley, who has relocated to Houston with her husband and two older children.
She said the family was eternally grateful to the mother who made the decision to donate her baby’s organs, which saved Kylie’s life and will help other critically ill children.
“My heart breaks for her and I think about her every minute of every day,” she said.
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