HUMAN INTEREST:
THIS ARTICLE IS AN EXAMPLE OF HUMAN INTEREST BECAUSE EVERYONE WAS
VERY AFFECTED BY THIS YOUNG GIRL'S STORY, AND EVERYONE WANTED TO
GET INVOLVED.
Girl's long-awaited lung transplant complete
updated 9:08 AM EDT, Thu June 13, 2013
Sarah Murnaghan gets new lungs
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Sarah Murnaghan's family says there were no issues during her lung transplant
- NEW: Surgery took six hours, Sarah did 'extremely well," family spokesman says
- Her family fought to change the policy for children's lung transplants
- Organization overseeing transplants ruled Monday to make children under 12 eligible for priority on adult lists
Her surgery took about
six hours, and there were no complications resizing or transplanting the
adult lungs, according to family spokeswoman Tracy Simon.
A statement said the family was elated and that the doctors say Sarah's prognosis is good.
"We expect it will be a
long road, but we're not going for easy, we're going for possible. And
an organ donor has made this possible for her," the family said, calling
the family of the deceased person who donated the lungs "true heroes."
Sarah "did extremely well" and was in intensive care after the procedure, Simon said.
10-year-old in ICU after lung transplant
Too young for adult lungs?
Judge adds dying girl to transplant list
The parents' push for an
organ transplant policy change has thrust the issue of who gets donated
organs into the national spotlight. Earlier this week, the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network's
executive committee approved a one-year change that makes children
younger than 12 eligible for priority on adult lung transplant lists.
Sarah received lungs
donated by an adult, according to Simon, meaning the lungs needed to be
modified. An OPTN news release said Monday that since 2007 only one
patient younger than 12 had received adult lungs.
Sarah has been in and out
of hospitals her entire life, but her condition worsened this year. Her
lungs had been deteriorating rapidly over the past few months -- much
faster than anyone in her family expected. In May, doctors told her
mother, Janet Murnaghan, that Sarah had less than five weeks to live.
"We knew at some point,
she would need new lungs," her father, Fran Murnaghan, said in May. "We
had hoped it would be much further down the road, but the disease has
progressed."
At that time, Sarah had been on the waiting list for new lungs for 18 months.
The Murnaghans were
under the impression that the transplant would happen any day, since she
was the first candidate on the priority list for children in her
region.
But children's organs rarely become available. In 2012, there were just 10 transplants in Sarah's age group, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
Comparatively, there were more than 1,700 adult transplants in the same
year. Only people 12 years and older qualified for the adult lungs.
Doctors previously have said they believe modified adult lungs could save Sarah's life.
Last week, the
Murnaghans contacted a lawyer, who petitioned Health and Human Services
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to change the rules that keep children under
12 from being prioritized for donated lungs.
Sebelius had previously
told the family that she didn't have the authority to intervene in a
particular case, but she did also call for a policy review. Any change
in the policy, though, could take up to two years -- time the Murnaghans
didn't have.
So in the letter last
week they argued the rule was making it all but impossible for Sarah to
receive a lung; every adult on the list would have to turn down the lung
to let the little girl have it.
"The Under 12 Rule is
unfair, arbitrary and capricious, inconsistent with the statute and
regulations, and stands in the way of Sarah potentially receiving a set
of lungs that she needs to live," wrote Stephen G. Harvey, the family's
lawyer.
"We have never, ever
asked that Sarah get special attention or be placed in front of anyone
more severe than her," her father said at the time. "So if there... is
another adult who is more severe, who has a higher lung allocation
score, they will still get their lungs first."
Several factors
determine someone's place in line on the adult list: distance from donor
to potential recipient, a lung allocation score determined by a
patient's diagnosis and test results, and a patient's blood type.
Sarah's parents said her
score was a 78. It went up to a 91 this week, according to a family
spokeswoman. Anything above 60 is considered a high score, according to
the OPTN's ranking system, and means a transplant need is particularly
urgent.
Several lawmakers also
got involved urging Sebelius to act. Rep. Patrick Meehan and Sen. Pat
Toomey, two Pennsylvania Republicans, co-signed a letter sent to HHS. It
read: "You have the ability and authority to intervene to allow for
Sarah and other children under the age of 12 to become eligible for
adult organs."
On June 5, the Murnaghan
family asked a federal judge to issue a restraining order to block
Sebelius from having the agency that oversees transplants apply the
policy. The judge granted the injunction and ordered Sebelius to direct the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network to waive the rule in Sarah's case.
A letter from Sebelius was sent to the OPTN the following day directing them to comply with the judge's order.
OPTN created a second
candidate record for Murnaghan that fudged her birth date so the system
would treat her as a 12-year-old allowing her to wait on the adult
transplant list. Her original record as a 10-year-old also was kept,
allowing her to remain first in line for a pediatric lung donation, as
well.
On the same day he
granted the injunction in Sarah's case, Judge Michael Baylson also
granted a similar injunction in the case of 11-year-old Javier Acosta,
making him eligible for adult lung.
On Monday, the OPTN took further action, with the group's executive committee approving the change for children under 12.
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