Family Appeals for Aid to Pay for Second Transplant : Medicine: UC San Diego Medical Center agrees to perform Laguna Niguel woman’s lung surgery, without which she has six months to live.

The family of a woman in need of a lung transplant is seeking donations for the lifesaving $130,000 operation, which a San Diego hospital has agreed to perform.

Relatives of Lori Long, 37, appealed for help, initially believing that unless they raise $50,000 now, and the balance of the bill later, the disabled woman will not receive the transplant, leaving her an estimated six months to live.

But late Thursday, officials from the transplant center at UC San Diego Medical Center vowed that Long will get her surgery--even if she cannot come up with all the money.

Long was recently turned down for transplant by two other university medical centers because she cannot pay. But at UCSD, “all the doctors are waiving their fees and prepared to do it for nothing,” said its director of cardio-thoracic surgery, Dr. Stuart Jamieson.

Though the hospital cannot offer free care, as long as Long and her family “make a good-faith effort” to pay some part of the bill, she will get her surgery, he vowed.

Hospital spokeswoman Nancy Stringer added that Long was placed last week on the official transplant list.

“If an appropriate transplant becomes available, she will receive her transplant,” even if she has not raised the entire down payment, Stringer said.

Born with a hole in her heart, Long developed a complication called pulmonary hypertension that over many years destroyed her lungs. In 1986, when she still had private insurance from a job as a rental car sales clerk, Long underwent complex heart-lung transplant surgery at the University of Arizona Medical Center.

Although the surgery saved her life, she has been disabled since then. Her bills total $3,000 a month for medicine and doctor visits, for which the state Medi-Cal program pays.

In recent months Long’s condition has worsened. Her voice is hoarse, she tires easily and she breathes with great difficulty, Long and her relatives said.

According to Jamieson, Long’s lung capacity has been cut at least in half, because her body is rejecting lungs that were transplanted in 1986.

Her only survival hope is a repeat transplant of a single lung, he said.

But six weeks ago Long learned that Medi-Cal will not pay for that surgery because state officials considered it “investigational.”

After the San Diego medical center agreed to the surgery, officials asked Long to come up with a deposit. Long mustered what remains of her strength and at first tried to raise the money herself. From her Laguna Niguel apartment--her cocker spaniel, Molly, by her side--Long telephoned Kiwanis clubs and local heart and lung associations, pleading: “I must raise the money for my second transplant--to give myself a second life.”

Recently, Long’s relatives came to her aid. Her uncle, Northridge insurance broker Paul Gladen, set up a trust fund in her name and Thursday persuaded a friend in public relations to alert radio, TV and print media to her plight.

Although he does not know how much has been raised so far, Gladen said Thursday that some money has already come in. He requested that other contributions be directed to the Lori Long Trust Account, 4390 Colfax Ave., North Hollywood, Calif. 91604.