Young Lung Transplant Recipient to Leave Hospital this Week

The 11-year-old Pennsylvania girl who received two double-lung transplants after a long embattled journey to get the organ allocation system to approve the surgery, is slated to be discharged from hospital this week, more than two months after the life-saving surgeries. 

According to the Associated Press, family spokeswoman Tracy Simon said Monday a final decision hasn't been made on exactly when Sarah Murnaghan will leave Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Sarah could be released from the hospital as early as Tuesday, August 27.

Murnaghan is now off an oxygen machine, her mother Janet said.  Sarah does however still get support from a machine that helps her breathe, and has started to walk with the aid of a walker, even getting outdoors.

"My sister pointed out that today is our Mom's birthday -- she died 11 years ago," Janet posted Saturday on her Facebook page. "And today is the first day Sarah has not needed any supplemental oxygen. Miracles from heaven!!!"

Sarah's case was the impetus for a national debate among doctors over the process of getting transplanted organs.

Sarah has cystic fibrosis and received the lungs when a judge intervened in a lawsuit over lung transplant rules. She  underwent her first adult double-lung transplant on June 12, but suffered primary graft failure (PGF) due to the poor quality of her first set of lungs, not rejection, according to her mother.

She then received a second pair of lungs infected with pneumonia on June 15. Despite the high risk of taking infected lungs, her mother said Sarah was running out of time, so they decided to go forward with the procedure.

According to the report, the family of another child, Javier Acosta, 11, has also petitioned to be considered earlier on the adult transplant list. A spokeswoman for the family did not immediately reply to queries about his condition.