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Inside the operating room in a Swedish hospital there was a buzz of activity, but Dr.

Cale Grinnimo couldn't hear any of it.

He was too focused on what was in front of him.

This should be sort of the start of a new era

when it comes to translational surgery and the organ

regeneration.

It was the morning of June 9, 2011. The team in this room was about to make history.

For the first time a windpipe manufactured in a laboratory would be implanted into a human.

Leading this effort was Dr. Paolo MacYorene.

A few days before surgery, Paolo asked me if I wanted to join in the operating theatre and look at operation.

And I mean, this was like, you know, a rock star that asked me if I wanted to come and join them backstage.

Dr. Grinnimo didn't hesitate. It was a nobody. backstage. feet up to his neck where Dr Maciorini was working and what he saw was how much

pressure this surgeon was under. You could really look at him he was extremely

stressed. Dr Maciorini began by removing the patient's cancerous trachea.

Once the old trachea was out, there was no turning back.

The synthetic trachea had been wheeled into the operating room.

So I opened up this box. It was, that was a very strange feeling, actually.

You open up a sort of a black box and inside there was this magic

synthetic track here. It was pinkish shaped like a Y and made out of a thick plastic.

He was cutting it to the right size and and made

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