Alejandra blows out birthday candles after four years of airway treatment

Four-year-old Alejandra can now breathe without mechanical support and has blown out her birthday candles for the first time, following years of treatment at Madrid’s Hospital 12 de Octubre.

She was born with only her left lung and a windpipe just two to three millimetres wide. The airway carrying air into her lung was also prone to narrowing or collapsing as she breathed. These three serious conditions kept her in hospital for roughly 18 months, including 10 consecutive months in intensive care.

Doctors first operated to widen her windpipe. They then placed five biodegradable supports, one after another, inside the airway leading to her lung. Each gradually dissolved over about three months, helping the airway develop enough strength to stay open and supporting her lung’s growth.

Her care brought together surgeons, lung specialists, intensive-care teams and specialist nurses, among others. She also needed a breathing tube through her neck, which has since been removed and the opening closed.

Alejandra still has reduced breathing capacity. Her family is helping her learn to manage it and gradually eat a more varied diet by mouth. But her mother, Francisca, says she can now live much like other children her age, a change the family once struggled to imagine.