World News for Students of English

19-10-2016 07:00

Imogen Bolton, a baby girl from Britain, was desperately ill in her first month of life. She was tiny and frail, and in and out of hospital, with a rare condition which left her struggling to breathe.

Today, she is a healthy child thanks to an astounding transformation – she has two new lungs which doctors transplanted when she was just five months old. She is possibly the youngest double recipient of lungs in Europe.

Children can wait years for donors, and in some cases, a donor never comes, but Imogen was incredibly lucky – her match came within days. The operation was complex, and the doctors had to use a magnifying glass because of the tiny lungs and airways about the size of a small straw.

The girl is now home happy and healthy, but her parents are very aware that for Imogen to get her donor lungs, another set of parents lost a child.

Difficult words: desperately (seriously), tiny (very small), frail (weak and sick), struggle (if you struggle doing something, it is very hard to do it), astounding (amazing).

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