A 2-year-old girl who was the youngest person ever to receive a bioengineered organ transplant died on Saturday, surgeons at an Illinois hospital in the United States said.

Hannah Warren was born without a windpipe ― an extremely rare condition. She inspired many Koreans when local broadcaster MBC aired a story about her life after her groundbreaking surgery conducted on April 9. 

The girl, who was born to a Canadian father Darryl Warren and Korean mother Lee Young-mi, died from complications of an operation conducted on Warren’s esophagus a month ago, surgeon Mark J. Holterman at Children’s Hospital of Illinois told the New York Times.

Yoo Hae-jin, the producer of documentary program “Hannah’s Miracle” which aired in May, expressed his condolence on his blog Sunday by posting an email from Hannah’s mother.

“My lovely daughter lived her life enthusiastically and beautifully for the 35 months of her short time. Thank you, little angel, you have been so loved and you showed people about love,” the bereaved mother wrote.

“Hannah now can breathe and run freely in a place where injections, examinations, surgeries and suctions do not exist,” she added.

MBC will air a special commemorative documentary for Warren on Monday.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)