April 15, 2012

Angela’s Story

This is the story of Angela Irizarry, who was born with a life-threatening congenital heart defect, and the groundbreaking surgical technique developed by Yale pediatric surgeon Dr. Christopher Breuer. Angela was the first patient in the United States to receive a natural tissue-engineered vascular graft, made from her body's own cells. The research and clinical trials of Dr. Breuer were funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

This page last reviewed on May 1, 2015