Comment following the death of a patient who received a synthetic trachea at Karolinska University Hospital

Comment: A female patient, the last survivor of the three who had been given a synthetic trachea by Paolo Macchiarini, has died in an American hospital, SVT reports.

“It’s terrible what this patient had to endure,” says Karin Dahlman-Wright, acting vice-chancellor of Karolinska Institutet. “I deeply regret the suffering caused to her and her family and we dearly wish it had been otherwise.”

The woman had suffered a tracheal injury in her native Turkey in connection with an operation for hyperhidrosis, or sweaty hands. In 2012 she was admitted to Karolinska University Hospital, where the new trachea was surgically implanted. Following the failure of the operation, the woman spent many years in hospital in Sweden before being transferred to the USA. She passed away on 19 March.