LONDON , England ( CNN ) -- Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue engineered from her own stem cells in what experts have hailed as a `` milestone in medicine . '' Claudia Castillo , 30 , suffered from tuberculosis for years . The breakthrough allowed Claudia Castillo , 30 , to receive a new section of trachea -- an airway essential for breathing -- without the risk that her body would reject the transplant . Castillo was given the stem cell surgery , the controversial branch of medicine that some say could lead to human cloning , after suffering a severe lung collapse . The condition , caused by long-term tuberculosis left Castillo , a Colombian now living in Barcelona , unable to carry out simple domestic duties or care for her two children . The only conventional option was a major operation to remove her left lung , a risky procedure with a high mortality rate . Sound off : What do you think about this medical breakthrough ? A team from the universities of Barcelona , Spain ; Bristol , England ; and Padua and Milan , Italy , decided instead to replace Castillo 's lower trachea and bronchial tube to her left lung with a lab-grown airway . The operation , reported Wednesday in the British medical journal The Lancet , has been hailed as a major leap for medicine that could offer new hope for patients suffering from serious illness . `` Surgeons can now start to see and understand the very real potential for adult stem cells and tissue engineering to radically improve their ability to treat patients with serious diseases , '' said Martin Birchall , professor of surgery at the University of Bristol , who was part of the team that did the operation . `` We believe this success has proved that we are on the verge of a new age in surgical care . '' To create the new windpipe , the team took a seven-centimeter ( 2.75-inch ) segment of trachea from a 51-year-old who had died . Over a six-week period , the team then removed all the cells from the donor trachea , because those cells could lead to rejection of the organ after transplant . All that remained of the donor 's stripped-down trachea was a matrix of collagen , a sort of scaffolding onto which the team then put Castillo 's own stem cells -- along with cells taken from a healthy part of her trachea . Birchall had already taken Castillo 's stem cells from her bone marrow and grown them into a large population in his Bristol lab . Watch Dr. Gupta explain the procedure » . Four days after putting Castillo 's stem cells into the donor trachea , the team was able to perform the transplant operation at the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona . Castillo had no complications from the operation and was discharged from the hospital 10 days later . `` We are terribly excited by these results , '' said Paolo Macchiarini of the University of Barcelona , who performed the operation in June . Watch Macchiarini describe the operation » . Macchiarini said just four days after the operation , the transplanted windpipe was `` almost indistinguishable '' from the patient 's normal bronchi . After one month , he said , the blood vessels had successfully grown back . `` We think that this first experience represents a milestone in medicine and hope that it will unlock the door for a safe and recipient-tailored transplantation of the airway in adults and children , '' the authors said in their report . `` We hope that these future patients will no longer suffer the trauma of speech loss , severe shortness of breath and other limited clinical and social activities . '' The doctors said Castillo is now able to care for her children and enjoy a normal quality of life . She can walk up two flights of stairs and occasionally even go out dancing at night . In a comment accompanying the Lancet report , Toshihiko Sato and Tatsuo Nakamura of Kyoto University in Japan said the operation should be highly regarded , but follow-ups from longer evaluation periods are needed to better evaluate the results .
Only a few windpipe , or trachea , transplants have ever been done . Transplant given to Claudia Castillo , a 30-year-old Colombian mother of two . Woman 's stem cells used to create cartilage , tissue cells to cover new windpipe . She was born with an undescended larynx and trachea, which means she has no voice at all.