Last night, we were all so exhausted that all I could do was ask for prayers and try to close my eyes while she was in the OR. The procedures lasted 3 hours. She came out at 2am. She is as stable as she can be right now. The situation is precarious. As I write this, her surgeon came in. Are they tracking anything, I asked? He said he hasn’t had an offer in 12 hours. The offers that came in most recently were too large, tall males.
Friends at home and here in Pittsburgh have been trying to spread awareness. The wonderfully compassionate NY Times Magazine writer Maggie Jones succinctly put our dilemma into words. Anyone is free to share her paragraph or this post.
Caitlin O’Hara, age 33, is on life support right now and, according to a national scoring system, considered the sickest person in the United States awaiting a lung transplant. Yet because of a controversial system, she will only be considered for lungs outside her geographical region if other doctors have already rejected lungs for their own patients. She has little time left. One other option is for “direct donation” of lungs to Caitlin O’Hara. As Caitlin’s mother said, “We are grateful to anyone out there who would consider the gift of life during a time of grief.” She’s at UPMC Pittsburgh and is O+ and 5’2” (which makes the pool of candidates even smaller). As importantly, this is a reminder to be an organ donor if you aren’t already. Register as an Organ Donor .
9 Lives Notes 