What would you do if your child was dying before your eyes and there was something that could be done to save her but it was unconventional, possibly illegal and circumvented the system? Would you do it? Would you pursue it? Would you move heaven and hell to save her life? I would. There would be no sacrifice too big to save my girls.
For the parents of 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan, who is dying of cystic fibrosis at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, this is their reality. The little girl's carbon monoxide is building up and she only has a week or two left to live. She's been waiting for a lung transplant for 18 months. Her parents are desperate to save her.
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Sarah is dying because organ donor rules stipulate that adult lungs be offered to adults who are in less dire need first because of a 12-year-old cut off line. Lungs are allocated by age groups–under 12, 12 to 17, and 18 and older based on severity of medical need but if you're under 12, you are screwed right out of consideration.
Thank heavens few children die each year, but that means there are very few pediatric lungs available for transplant to children like Sarah. Last year, only 20 lungs were donated from children under 12, compared to about 1,500 from adults.
The Murnaghans feel it is unfair that adult lungs must be offered to all wait-listed adults before the organs are offered to adolescents or children–and I agree. No one who is dying is going to turn down lungs so she will never get lungs. She should be offered the first suitable lungs that become available, whether the donor is a child or adult because she needs them!
Sarah qualified 18 months ago to be put on the lung-transplant waiting list and now her time has just about run out. As a parent, I'd say it's time for rules to be broken.
Sarah's mother, Janet, is desperate and on Friday launched a last-resort public-relations blitz, claiming, "The law is, in my view, age discrimination. I don't know if this is too late to make a difference for Sarah. But we'll keep fighting it."
This child has been on the waiting list for 18 months now. She is weeks from dying because of a stupid rule. How can we put a value on life that a person over the age of 12 is more valuable than one under 12? Everyone is human and his or her life has value. This little girl is someone's daughter; someone's everything and they have to watch her die because of a rule that makes her life less valuable than a person 2 years older than she is.
As a parent, I would fight tooth and nail. Hell, I'd probably go all John Q on that hospital's ass. Desperate times call for desperate measures, people, and not only is this rule killing their daughter, it is completely killing her parents to have to sit by idly and watch this happen.
There has to be a better way to qualify who gets lungs first aside from just age. We need to consider the need, the risk of imminent death, and the quality of life of the recipient. I know that everyone is someone's everything, but is it fair to offer a pair of lungs to an elderly man who has smoked his entire life over a child who has her whole life ahead of her and has done nothing to contribute to her condition? I think it's bullshit and I think her mom is right to take it to the media. My only wish is that she would have done so a year ago.
Image via Change.org
