Overview
- Mette‑Marit received the transplant on June 17 and is still in Rikshospitalet where clinicians are closely monitoring her in the weeks after surgery while they establish the right immunosuppression regimen.
- Her placement on the organ waiting list led to a matching donor lung in an unusually short 12 days, a timing officials described as early given Norway’s small transplant caseload.
- Treating physicians said the operation was lifesaving because without it she likely had about a year to live, and hospital survival figures cited are roughly 85–90% at one year, 70–75% at five years and about 50% at ten years.
- The transplant will change her daily life: she will take immunosuppressive drugs for life, face higher infection risk because the lung contacts the environment, and need months of rehabilitation before resuming many royal duties.
- The case has drawn public support from other European royal families, has already forced adjustments in the royal household’s plans for the children, and highlights how Norway’s centralized transplant system at Rikshospitalet handles a small number of lung procedures each year.