5-Year-Old Girl with Cystic Fibrosis, Youngest Double Lung Transplant

Last year, Miriam Imran was deathly ill after the ravages of Cystic Fibrosis took her to the brink and placed her on oxygen and the transplant list in Britain. In January, she became the youngest person in Britain to receive a double lung transplant.

This fall, she is back in school and playing with her friends, an amazing transformation in quality of life. Transplants among black and Asian patients are more rare, as they are best suited by receiving organs from similar donors, but under 5% of all donors are black or Asian.

Because of Miriam’s transplant, almost all of her CF symptoms will disappear: coughing, frequent lung infections, and low body mass. Her coughing will, in fact, disappear entirely, as transplanted lungs lose the nerve connections to the brain that signal the urge to clear out junk like normal. She will even have to go as far as forcing herself to cough every few hours because it will not occur naturally. Amazing, considering the condition she was in last year.

Miriam, congrats to you, and a long, happy life ahead.