that is build up of secretions in the lung and you get scarring in the lung because the lung is stiff. she is not yet on a respirator which is really good thing. once she is on ventilator, respirator, she is trouble because the lungs don t stand the high pressures is. sarah is getting sicker. that should move her up on the list. they tend to give priority for those who are the sickest. i think only be fair children be on the list, when you consider a disease, cystic fibrosis which affects many organs, because it gets worse as you get older. she is in worse shape than a lot of adults, would do better with a transplant especially now that we can transplant parts of a lung. martha: that is good point you make. the only justification for having a separate list for children they would not be compatible with adult lungs. we ve proven that is not true, but the reason is separated wrong for separating them. bureaucracy has to keep up with technology.
a 10-year-old girl s battle to live. her name is sarah murnaghan. doctors say she will die possibly within weeks. sarah has been waiting for more than 18 months for donor lungs from another child. it s a fact that pediatric lungs are scarce, scarcer than lungs from adult donors. here is another hard fact. children younger than 12, including sarah, no matter how sick they are, face a steep hurdle when it comes to getting adult lungs. the current transplant rules prevent them from being prioritized from being on the waiting list for adult lungs. sarah s parents filed a lawsuit. and a judge signed a court order removing that hurdle for sarah for the next ten days. here is exclusive video of sarah reacting to the news. woo! woo! woo! woo. she s a very strong little girl. jason carol joins me now. what does this ruling mean? is this the last roadblock for
find a match in time. but this only this exemption for kids only applies to her. so other kids who are in need of transplants, they re not able to get adult lungs. but potentially, when you listen to what her team is saying, what her family is saying, what her attorneys are saying, the implications here are very grand. because if a judge rules in this way, in this situation, it could quite possibly open the door for other children who are in a similar, desperate, critical situation, as well. you talked about the health and human services secretary, kathleen sebelius. her parents had asked her to intervene yesterday. she essentially said her hands were tied in this case. now, any response from her? well, we tried reaching out to secretary sebelius several times throughout the day. yesterday was interesting. she attended a budget hearing in washington, d.c., and, of course, all the questions turned to poor sarah murnihan, her situation, what was being done. from the secretary s p
that keeps children younger than 12 from being prioritized to get adult lungs. the injunction is valid for just ten days. sarah s parents have said their daughter may only have a few weeks to live if she did you want get new lungs. the father says it s only fair those with the most severe problems should have access. and he s pretty excited about this. watch. if there s another adult who is more severe who has a higher lung allocation score, they will still get their lungs first. it s just now sarah will have an opportunity to not have to wait for every adult no matter what their score is to pass the lung and then it be offered to the pediatric patients. a spokeswoman for the group that oversees transplant rules says that the group is now waiting for clarification from the court. and they can this out, george zimmerman due back in court any minute now for a key hearing, this is before his murder trial starts on monday. so what happened this morning?
murnaghan, has cystic fibrosis and needs a lung transplant that could save her life. until now, federal rules have barred her from receiving an adult lung. a judge has issued a temporary restraining order this afternoon, making sarah available for a transplant. sarah s aunt joins me now. sharon, thank you for joining me. i know that sarah clearly is very seriously ill. so much so that her parents at her bedside tonight. and the condition is very serious. how important is it to the family that you ve managed to have this legal success? it is incredible for the family. this is the thing that could save sarah s life and allow her to live a long life. ten days is hopefully enough time for her to get lungs. she is very ill and it should put her at the top or near the top of the list to get lungs and so we re overjoyed. for those who have not been following this, explain to me exactly the dilemma you found yourselves in.