CANTON, Ohio -- An Ohio infant born with a genetic disease that affects just one in every million babies has undergone a rare double lung transplant.
Eight-month-old Elliana Joy White is home for Christmas in Plain Township in Stark County after the operation at St. Louis Children's Hospital.
Elliana was born to Rob and Gina White in April. She couldn't breathe on her own, and doctors found that she had a protein deficiency that has no treatment or cure.
Surgeons at the Missouri hospital have the most experience with the transplant, which has been performed less than 50 times in the last 15 years. A Philadelphia donor's lungs were transplanted into Elliana's chest in August.
Doctors kept her isolated and only recently took her off a ventilator. The family returned to Ohio this week.
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