Dying Pa. girl on transplant wait list for adult lung as Sebelius complies with judge’s rule

WASHINGTON – The organ transplant network has placed a dying 10-year-old girl on the adult waiting list for a donated lung, complying with a judge’s unusual order.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Thursday that Sarah Murnaghan also remains on the priority list for a lung from a pediatric donor.

Sebelius said the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network made the change last night, after the government relayed the judge’s ruling.

The girls’ parents had challenged existing transplant policy that made children under 12 wait for pediatric lungs to become available, or be offered lungs donated by adults after adolescents and adults on the waiting list had been considered. The ruling applies only to Sarah, who has end-stage cystic fibrosis and has been awaiting a transplant at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.