http://www.whas11.com/news/national/Girl-to-get-lung-transplant-from-adult-donor-amid-controversy-211235711.html Girl to get lung transplant from adult donor amid controversy
Pennsylvania 10-year-old to receive lung transplant. by ABC News WHAS11.com Posted on June 12, 2013 at 1:52 PM Related:
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ABC News) -- The 10-year-old girl whose family fought the so-called Under 12 Rule for the past several weeks will receive a lung transplant today from an adult donor, her aunt told ABC News.
Sarah Murnaghan, 10, of Newtown Square, Pa., was dying of cystic fibrosis when her family brought the Under 12 Rule, a little-known organ transplant policy, to national attention after arguing that the rule had been unfairly pushing Sarah to the bottom of the adult lung transplant waiting list. The family won a court order to put Sarah on equal footing with adults on the transplant list and prompted an Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network policy change.
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More ABC News Videos "Sarah got THE CALL," her mother, Janet Murnaghan, wrote on her Facebook page. "She will be taken back to the OR in 30 minutes."
Family spokeswoman Tracy Simon told ABCNews.com that the surgery was expected to take several hours.
Sarah's lawyers convinced federal Judge Michael Baylson on June 5 that the Under 12 Rule was discriminatory, prompting a temporary restraining order against Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to prevent her from enforcing it for Sarah.
Baylson's ruling forced OPTN to create a second database entry for Sarah with a fake birthday to trick the organ transplant system into thinking she was 12. The following day, another child in Sarah's hospital, Javier Acosta, 11, won the same reprieve.
The OPTN on June 10 voted to keep the so-called Under 12 Rule, but it created a mechanism that would allow doctors to request exceptions for their pediatric patients. A national lung review board would then approve these children for transplant consideration as adults case by case.
