Severely ill Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit has had a successful lung-transplant operation, the royal family announced on Wednesday.
"The lung transplant has been successful thus far," according to Arnt Fiane, professor of medicine at the University of Oslo, as cited on the royal family's website. Fiane is a cardiothoracic surgeon and head of the Heart and Lung Transplant Programme at Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet.
"We are delighted that everything has progressed well so far," he said.
In accordance with standard practice for transplant patients, Mette-Marit will remain in hospital for several weeks. Her husband, Crown Prince Haakon, will continue to adjust his schedule in the coming days to be able to support his wife, the press release said.
Mette-Marit, 52, suffers from the incurable condition pulmonary fibrosis, which causes scarring of the lung tissue and makes breathing difficult. In her daily life, she has been using an oxygen tank.
The Royal Palace announced on June 5 that Mette-Marit had been placed on the waiting list for a new lung.
The number of potential organ donors in Norway rose dramatically in the aftermath of the announcement, according to Norwegian news agency NTB, which cited the country’s Organ Donation Foundation.
To qualify for the lung-transplant waiting list, patients are generally expected to have a life expectancy of about one year without a transplant.
Family in distress
In addition to Mette-Marit's illness, several scandals have weighed heavily on the royal family. Reports in the Jeffrey Epstein case revealed Mette-Marit’s former friendship with the sex offender.
In a television interview earlier in the year, she said that Epstein had manipulated and deceived her. She claimed to have known nothing about his crimes.
Furthermore, on Monday her son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Høiby, was sentenced to four years in prison for rape, among other crimes. He is appealing the verdict.
