What is it like to have a lung transplant?

As Norway’s crown princess, Mette-Marit, convalesces from lung transplant surgery, we bring together patients and doctors to share their experiences of this major life-saving procedure.

Since the 1980s, lung transplantations have become increasingly routine, but as every operation relies on suitable donor organs becoming available, the timing is always uncertain.

“Everything was so quick, everything was so scary,” says Aimee Morrison, who received her new lungs last year, only months after being told she had a chronic degenerative condition, “You don’t really get an opportunity to think about what’s happening … 10-12 hr surgery, unknown results, what’s going to happen afterwards…” As we hear, Aimee’s story was particularly dramatic as only a week before her operation she had given birth to her daughter.

Lung transplant patients require life-long aftercare from physicians like Dr Vicky Gerovasili, as their condition will always eventually deteriorate. “That can be very emotionally stressful,” she says,”but it's also very rewarding because we are becoming part of their life and their family. I sign off patients to go scuba diving, travel the world and that's fantastic to see.”

Presenter: James Reynolds
BBC producers: Ryan Keane and Lindsay Brown
Boffin Media producer: Anne McNaught
Editor: Arja Haikonen and Harriet Oliver

A Boffin Media production in partnership with the BBC World Service Outside Source team

(Photo: Norway’s crown princess, Mette-Marit before her operation. Credit: Getty)