My impression is that there are more adult lungs than child lungs available for transplant, which is why they wanted her to get an adult lung.
Or she gets to be on both lists now.
I heard someone else say that although an adult lung could be cut to fit into her, it would scar more, be less likely to work and more likely to need to be replaced in a few years. This might not be a case of someone else being bumped down the list and dying so that she can live, but rather two people (one now and one more in a few years) dying.
It's a horrible situation and if it was my daughter I would be tempted to bring in "donor" lungs that I "found" in order to keep her alive (head shots only to keep the lungs healthy), but that twelve year old limit was picked for a reason to provide the best distribution for a very limited supply of donor organs. I don't know whether the math is good, but more skilled people than me or that judge decided it for a reason.
There is an adult out there in need of lungs that more than likely have a family to support. Doesn’t make the pain of a child dying any less.........