Sarah Murnaghan Rule Permanent

Sarah Murnaghan Rule Permanent

Sarah Murnaghan is breathing on her own.

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, yesterday, June 23, made permanent a rule that let  children under 12 apply for adult lungs, and the Murnaghans of  Newtown Square are celebrating.

An change to the policy made June 11, 2013 in response to then 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan’s fight for a new lung had been set to expired July 1.

Then Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius refused to waive the rule instead offering a review that would have taken two years. This would have resulted in certain death for the little girl.

Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey took the fight to the bureaucracy while the Murnaghans sought relief in the federal courts, which they got and which resulted in the temporary change in policy.

In the last year,  seven children  received adult lungs they would have previously been prevented from receiving.

Some will say that is a modest result. Others will point out that seven families have been spared the heartache of losing a child and wonder why the fight had to be made in the first place.

Sarah, by the way, is doing great and had her tracheostomy removed June 15. She is breathing on her own for the first time in years.

Sarah Murnaghan Rule Permanent

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