Update at 6:28pm
A 10-year-old girl whose efforts to qualify for an organ donation spurred public debate over how organs are allocated underwent a successful double-lung transplant on Wednesday, a family spokeswoman said.
Sarah Murnaghan, who suffers from severe cystic fibrosis, received new lungs from an adult donor at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, spokeswomanTracy Simon said.
The Murnaghan family said it was “thrilled” to share the news that Sarah was out of surgery.
“Her doctors are very pleased with both her progress during the procedure and her prognosis for recovery,” the family said in a statement.
During double-lung transplants, surgeons must open up the patient’s chest. Complications can include rejection of the new lungs and infection.
Sarah went into surgery around 11 a.m. Wednesday, and the procedure lasted about six hours, her family said.
“The surgeons had no challenges resizing and transplanting the donor lungs — the surgery went smoothly, and Sarah did extremely well,” it said.
Sarah’s family and the family of another cystic fibrosis patient at the same hospital challenged 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. They said pediatric lungs are rarely donated.
Sarah’s health was deteriorating when a judge intervened in her case last week, giving her a chance at the much larger list of organs from adult donors. U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson ruled June 5 that Sarah and 11-year-old Javier Acosta, of New York City, should be eligible for adult lungs.
Critics warned there could be a downside to having judges intervene in the organ transplant system’s established procedures. Lung transplants are difficult procedures, and some experts say child patients tend to have more trouble with them than adults do.
No other details about the donor lungs are known, including whether they came through the regular donor system or through public appeals.
Sarah’s relatives, who are from Newtown Square, just west of Philadelphia, were “beyond excited” about her new lungs but were “keeping in mind that someone had to lose a family member and they’re very aware of that and very appreciative,” family spokeswomanMaureen Garrity said earlier Wednesday.
The Murnaghan family received word about the donor lungs Tuesday night, Garrity said.
Sarah’s mother, Janet Murnaghan, said in a Facebook post that the family was “overwhelmed with emotions” and thanked all her supporters. She said the donor’s family “has experienced a tremendous loss, may God grant them a peace that surpasses understanding.”
The national organization that manages organ transplants, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, added Sarah to the adult waiting list after the judge’s ruling. Her transplant came two days before a hearing was scheduled on the family’s request for a broader injunction.
The network has said 31 children under age 11 are on the waiting list for a lung transplant. Its executive committee held an emergency meeting this week but resisted making emergency rule changes for children under 12 who are waiting on lungs, instead creating a special appeal and review system to hear such cases.
Sarah’s family “did have a legitimate complaint” about the rule that limited her access to adult lungs, said medical ethicist Arthur Caplan, of the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York.
“When the transplant community met, they didn’t want to change that rule without really thinking carefully about it,” he said. The appeals process that was established this week, he said, was “built on evidence, not on influence.”
He added: “In general, the road to a transplant is still to let the system decide who will do best with scarce, lifesaving organs. And it’s important that people understand that money, visibility, being photogenic … are factors that have to be kept to a minimum if we’re going to get the best use out of the scarce supply of donated cadaver organs.
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Sarah Murnaghan, the 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl dying of cystic fibrosis, is receiving her long-awaited lung transplant.
According to a Facebook post from Sarah’s mother, Janet, the family received word this morning of new lungs that had been made available, and Sarah is currently in surgery. The operation could take anywhere from six to 12 hours.
Sarah’s father, Fran, confirmed to Fox News that the lungs his daughter received are adult lungs.
A spokeswoman from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where Sarah has been hospitalized, said they do not have any further information to release.
In the Facebook post, Janet said the family is overwhelmed with emotions, and she thanked everyone for their unending support. She also asked her followers to pray for Sarah’s donor.
“Please pray for Sarah’s donor, her HERO, who has given her the gift of life,” Janet Murnaghan wrote. “Today their family has experienced a tremendous loss, may God grant them a peace that surpasses understanding.”
United States Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) released the following statement after being informed by the family of Sarah’s good news:
“I am deeply grateful to the organ donor and his or her family for the potentially life-saving gift to Sarah. Now that a suitable donor has been found, a prayer would help, too – a prayer Sarah’s body accepts the new organ the way doctors believe it can. The judge gave Sarah a chance to receive a new lung. Now the surgical team at CHOP is giving her a chance at life.”
Sarah has been in desperate need of a lung transplant for the past 18 months. She has been hospitalized at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for the past three months, where she has been on a ventilator.
Under the current guidelines for organ donation, children under the age of 12 must wait for pediatric lungs to become available. Adult lungs cannot be offered to children under 12, until they are offered to adults and adolescents first.
The Murnaghans have been in the midst of a legal battle over the established rules for organ donation after they filed a lawsuit last week to have the guidelines changed, arguing the rule keeping Sarah off the list was “discriminatory.”
A federal court judge granted a temporary order on June 5 that allowed Sarah to join an adult organ transplant list.
Judge Michael Baylson made his ruling after hearing oral arguments on the case and had scheduled a preliminary injunction hearing for June 14.
Baylson’s order told Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to direct the group that manages the organ transplant list to cease application of it in Sarah’s case.
Secretary Sebelius declined to intervene in the case early last week, despite urgent pleas from several members of Congress from Pennsylvania. Sebelius said that such decisions should be made by medical experts and noted that there were three other children at Children’s Hospital alone in the same condition.
Over the weekend, Sarah’s condition worsened, and she was intubated on Saturday after she experienced additional trouble breathing.
According to Fran, Sarah’s gift also comes on the same day as his and his wife’s 40th wedding anniversary.
PRAISE GOD & Pray for this little girl. What a strong young lady! Let us also Pray for the family who lost their loved one, yet saved this young lady’s life! Such a shame we have to go to court now to obtain healthcare under obamacare !
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