PHILADELPHIA: A 10-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis was recovering from a transplant of adult lungs after a judge’s ruling expanded her options for lifesaving surgery.
Sarah Murnaghan underwent a six-hour surgery Wednesday at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a procedure her aunt said resulted because of the larger list of available organs. Sharon Ruddock said after her niece’s surgery was completed successfully that the donor lungs came through “normal channels” and not through the public appeals the family made in its bid to find a compatible donor. No other details about the donor lungs are known.
The Murnaghan family’s quest to qualify their daughter for an organ transplant spurred public debate over how donor organs are allocated. Her family and the family of another cystic fibrosis patient at the same hospital challenged existing transplant policy that made children under 12 wait for pediatric lungs to become available, or be offered lungs donated by adults only after adolescents and adults on the waiting list had been considered.
10-year-old girl gets new lungs
