First US trachea transplant offers hope to Covid patients with windpipe damage

• Social worker, 56, treated at Mt Sinai hospital in New York
• Some patients left with serious damage from ventilators

Surgeons in New York City have performed the first windpipe transplant in the US, giving a woman who suffered severe asthma a new trachea, the tube that transports air from the mouth to the lungs.

Doctors say such operations could help Covid-19 patients left with serious windpipe damage from breathing machines.