Lung Transplant Patient Continues to Improve

A cystic fibrosis patient who received lung transplants from her parents was up and walking Sunday, showing a faster recovery than expected, her doctor said.

“Her prognosis is good, equal to a standard transplant at this point,” said Dr. Vaughn A. Starnes.

Stacy Sewell, 22, of Quartz Hill was taken off a ventilator Saturday morning, 12 hours after the landmark operation.

She drank liquid meals and spoke by telephone to her parents in an adjoining suite at USC University Hospital.

“From my standpoint, she’s doing even better than we would have hoped,” Starnes said.

Sewell’s parents--James Sewell, 55, and Barbara, 49--were in good condition after each donating a lung lobe. They will probably be released in three or four days, doctors said.

The transplanted lobes will do the work of a complete set of lungs for their daughter, a small woman with a correspondingly small chest cavity.

The operation was the world’s first transplant of two lung lobes into a single recipient, and the first in which both lobes came from living relatives, doctors said. Doctors estimated that she has a 75% chance of surviving one year and a 65% chance of surviving three years.

Before the operation, her life expectancy was no more than a few weeks, a hospital spokeswoman said. USC University Hospital is a private-practice teaching hospital for the USC School of Medicine faculty. It is owned by National Medical Enterprises.