Woman's triple transplant halted

The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A 19-year-old woman returned home to wait for a new donor Saturday after her plans to undergo a rare triple transplant were canceled because a donated lung contained traces of pneumonia.

Brandy Stroeder, who has been fighting the Oregon Health Plan for the right to a lung and liver transplant, was flown to the Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif., for the surgery after learning Friday that the organs and a new heart were available.

She had been in the hospital for several hours undergoing tests when the transplant was called off.

"I said, 'What am I supposed to do now? Am I supposed to go home?"' she Saturday after returning to Oregon. "I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing. I was so devastated I didn't want to talk to anyone. I just wanted to sit by myself."