Last breath

The first person to be given a lung transplant from a dead donor died on
Sunday. The Swedish woman, who had suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease, received the lung last October. But her condition deteriorated
following a later liver operation and she developed a lethal viral infection.
The doctor who carried out the lung transplant, Stig Steen of Lund University,
says he still considers the operation a success. “The function of the lung was
good right up to the last minutes of her life,” says Steen’s colleague Trygve
Sjöberg.