Doctors in Spain have carried out a six-organ transplant on an 18-month-old girl who was born with cancer, a Madrid hospital said.

The baby, named Cristina, was sent home with her parents after the March 25 operation, which was made public Wednesday, La Paz Hospital said.

Cristina was the fourth to undergo a multi-organ transplant at the hospital, but the first to recover enough to go home. The other three patients survived the surgery but ultimately developed infections that killed them, the hospital said.

In the 11-hour operation on Cristina, doctors replaced her liver, pancreas, small intestine, large intestine, stomach and spleen. All the organs came from the same donor.

"It is a transplant of maximum complexity from every point of view," Manuel Lopez Santamaria, the doctor who co-ordinated the surgical team, told reporters on Wednesday.

The big danger for the baby now is infection and the risk of organ rejection, and she will undergo treatment for years.

She was born with an abdominal cancer and suffered multiple organ problems after a key artery was damaged in surgery aimed at removing the tumour.

At the age of 15 months, she weighed just 6.5 kilograms and was fed intravenously.

"It is awful to see your child slowly waste away and move toward death," the baby's mother Maria Jose Garcia said.

She thanked the parents of the donor baby and said she understood their pain, but added: "Donation can be the first step toward saving another life."

Source: China Daily