Surgery to transplant both lungs donated from a boy younger than six who had been declared brain dead into a 1-year-old girl at Okayama University Hospital on May 11 was successful.

The surgery got underway shortly after 9:00 on the morning of the 11th and was completed without incident after about six and a half hours at around 3:30 p.m. The girl is expected to be released from the hospital in about two months. Her parents said, “We think that the donated lungs will live on with our daughter. We hope she will grow big and enjoy the boy’s share of life together with them.”

Professor Takahiro Oto of the Transplantation Center , who performed the surgical procedure, said, “I am relieved that we could continue the patient’s life, linking it with the precious life of the boy who died and the wishes of his family.” Previously the youngest lung transplant patient in Japan was a 2-year-old boy who received parts of a lung from a living donor in September 2014. This surgery was also performed by Professor Takahiro Oto.