Javier Acosta can finally start to breathe easy. The New York boy received a new set of lungs after challenging the nation’s organ transplants rules.
Acosta, as well as Pennsylvania’s Sarah Murnaghan, forced the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network to change the rules that allowed adolescents and adults to receive organs based on their needs or sickness. Up until now, children had to wait until they turned 12 years old to be put on the waiting list.
Javier had surgery on October 13th after his mother Milagros Martinez successfully filed a lawsuit allowing him to be put on the same list as those over 12. Javier’s mom waited to tell everyone the news about the transplant until he recovered from the surgery.
Javier suffers from the genetic disease cystic fibrosis. The disease is extremely familiar to his family. Javier’s brother died from cystic fibrosis four years ago, just months before he turned 12 and would have been considered an adolescent.
Javier remains under hospital supervision from the transplant. His mother says his prognosis is good and he is “doing fine.”
Source: airing news