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Pioneering Surgery Gives Teen New Life

 

Laura Margaret Burbach, 16, keeps in touch with friends via Facebook in her Duke Hospital room prior to discharge.A smiling 16-year-old Laura Margaret Burbach was discharged recently from Duke Hospital amid a confetti parade. The double-transplant recipient received new lungs and bone marrow from the same donor—the first time this transplant combination has been attempted.

"The idea that we might be able to essentially create an immune system that wouldn't react against the organ is something of the holy grail that we all hope to achieve," said Dr. R. Duane Davis, her lung transplant surgeon.

Said an emotional Burbach: "I can't believe this is happening. I was diagnosed when I was 6 months old, and I'm now 16, and I don't have immune deficiency syndrome anymore!"

Read the full story and see more photos of Laura.