Call it the Agony and the Ecstasy.
The agony came on Tuesday for all involved in the case of Sarah Murnaghan, the 10-year-old Newtown Square girl who is battling end-stage Cystic Fibrosis and is in dire need of a lung transplant.
Her family had appealed to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to change federal guidelines that keep children under 12 off the list for adult lung transplants, thus greatly increasing their chances of finding a donor. Sebelius said that while she would ask for the policies to be reviewed, she would not intervene directly and order the change. She called the decision "agonizing."
She'd get no argument from the Murnaghan family. Yesterday they went to court seeking a hearing on the push to change the guidelines. They won.
For now, you can call that the ecstasy.
It's a case with no easy answers, only an overwhelming sadness.
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