A 23 day-old baby has undergone a successful bone marrow transplant operation at the University Children’s Hospital in Krakow.

The little boy is already back home with his parents and sister, who donated the bone marrow.

Dr Jolanta Gozdzik, head of the transplants ward in the hospital, says the operation was possible thanks to a fast diagnosis. Doctors knew what was wrong with the baby boy when he was only two days old. Fortunately, a donor was also found in practically no time.

Such operations are rarely conducted on such small patients. Normally, the babies requiring the surgery are three to five months old.

Health minister Ewa Kopacz has just announced a national program to increase the dramatically small number of organ transplantations conducted in Poland. Some 45 percent of patients die before an organ is found for them. Last year, 1097 such operations were conducted in this country. (kk)