Sarah Murnaghan, the 10-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis whose quest for a new set of lungs has started a national controversy over transplant policy, is said to be resting comfortably after receiving the lungs she so desperately needed.
According to her mother, Janet Murnaghan, Sarah went into surgery around 11:00 a.m. yesterday morning and did very well throughout the six hour procedure.
“The surgeon’s had no problems resizing and transplanting the donor lungs,” Mrs. Murnaghan writes on Facebook. “The surgery went very smoothly and Sarah did extremely well.”
Sarah is now resting in the intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where her recovery from this long and painful ordeal will now begin.
“We expect it will be a long road,” her mother said about the days to come, “but we’re not going for easy, we’re going for possible.”
Sarah’s miracle came about after a temporary court order put her on an adult donation list even though she was technically illegible due to her age. Normally, children in need of transplants wait on a list for pediatric donors, but they are much more rare.
CBS News is reporting that although the family has no details about the donor of the lungs, they were told that the organs came from someone over the age of 12.
In order to fit adult lungs into a child, the organs sometimes must be trimmed and reshaped in order to fit the child, a procedure that apparently took place in Sarah’s case.
“Lung transplant is the most challenging transplant of all the organs,” said Dr. Joshua Sonett, who specializes in lung transplantation. “If she makes it through the transplant and makes it through the first year, she’s going to have a 50 to 70 percent chance of making it over five years and perhaps a 50 percent chance of making it 10 years.”
There is no chance that the cystic fibrosis will come back and infect the new lungs, but the disease is known to infect other organs.
According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the disease is caused by a defective gene that causes the body to produce unusually thick mucus that clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening infections. It also obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body bread down and absorb food.
There was a time when few children with cystic fibrosis survived long enough to attend elementary school but advances in medicine have greatly extended their lives.
The family is expressing their thanks and gratitude to God and everyone who helped to make this miraculous moment possible, including Dr. Thomas Spray, the physician who performed the surgery, and the donor in particular.
“We are elated this day has come, but we also know our good news is another family’s tragedy,” Mrs. Murnaghan wrote. “That family made the decision to give Sarah the gift of life – and they are the true heroes today.”
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