Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
How you prepare
By Mayo Clinic staffAccording to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, about 2,500 people in the U.S. are waiting to receive a lung transplant on any given day — but there are only enough donor organs to provide about 1,500 lung transplants a year.
When a donor organ becomes available, the donor-recipient matching system administered by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) finds an appropriate match based on specific criteria, including:
- Blood type
- Geographic distance between donor organ and transplant recipient
- Lung allocation score
Your lung allocation score is determined by the type and severity of lung disease and the likelihood of a transplant being successful — not the amount of time spent on the waiting list. The only exception is for children younger than age 12. Pediatric candidates receive donor lungs based on the amount of time they've been on the waiting list, blood type and distance to the donor hospital. Contrary to what you might interpret from the media, celebrities and wealthy people do not move up the list because of who they are.
When you're on the waiting list for a lung transplant, it may be a few months to several years until a suitable donor becomes available. During that time, your lung disease may continue to progress. You need to continue to treat and manage it as you wait. If your overall health deteriorates while you are waiting for a transplant, it's possible that transplantation may no longer be a suitable treatment for your condition.
In addition to managing your existing lung disease, while you wait for a donor lung, you should also:
- Take your medications as prescribed.
- Follow your diet and exercise guidelines.
- Keep all appointments with your health care team.
- Avoid crowds and people with a respiratory infection.
- Stay involved in healthy activities, including relaxing and spending time with family and friends.
- Keep a positive outlook.
- Consider joining a support group.
A donated lung remains viable only for four to six hours after it's removed from the donor, so be prepared to act quickly. Make sure the transplant team knows how to reach you at all times. Keep your packed hospital bag handy — including an extra 24-hour supply of your medications — and arrange transportation to the transplant center in advance. When a donated lung becomes available, you may be expected to arrive at the hospital within about two to three hours.
