A year ago, Sarah Murnaghan, an 11-year-old Pennsylvania girl, was
fighting for her life while her family waged a campaign to change a national
policy on lung transplants for child recipients.
Their battle has now led to
permanent policy change.
On Monday, the Organ Procurement
and Transplant Network (OPTN) and United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)
announced their decision to allow some children ages 11 or younger to receive
additional priority for lung transplants, including lungs from older donors, according
to a statement from UNOS.
The previous policy required lung
transplant candidates to be at least 12 to receive lungs from an adult donor.
Following an appeal by the Murnaghans, in June 2013 a federal judge issued a
restraining order to prevent the age-restriction policy from being imposed in
Sarah's case.
Sarah received lungs donated by
an adult. The first transplants didn't take, requiring a second transplant,
again from an adult donor.
"Sarah receiving adult lungs
means she is now breathing on her own," her family said last year,
"after three years of being tethered to machines."
On Monday, the family called her
new lungs "beautiful" and said Sarah will be returning to school in
the fall.
"Sarah is still getting
physical rehabilitation and we have work in front of us," said the family,
"but we are blessed there has been no rejection."
The new policy change to allow
some child recipients to receive lungs from adult donors "is meant to
provide an appropriate balance for a specific group of candidates," a UNOS
statement said Monday.
The Murnaghan family expressed
excitement regarding the decision, saying in a statement also released Monday
that the policy change "is important for two reasons: More children will
be fortunate enough to receive life-saving lung transplants, and the medical
community has determined this is the right step to take."
The fight was not just about
Sarah, the Murnaghans said, "because there was a very good chance it would
have been too late for her -- but for every family in our situation."
Several factors determine a
potential child recipient's place in line on the adult list, such as 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 last year and went up to a 91 in June of 2013 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.
Sarah's parents fought to change
the policy regarding lung transplants because their daughter suffered from a
lifelong battle with cystic fibrosis. This illness led to a deterioration of
her lungs.
In light of Sarah's case the OPTN
executive committee a year ago approved a one-year change to the
age-restriction policy.
Today, Sarah can be seen riding
her bike outside, swimming, even kicking around the soccer ball.
Sarah's case received national
attention and was widely covered by CNN. According to policy documents, a
high-profile media case was the catalyst for the first change in policy.
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