Conclusion

Abstract

Many sociomedical factors affected people pursuing lung transplantation in the United States, both at the personal and local “micro level” and at the national and more distant “macro level.” At the micro level, the fact of being a lung transplant candidate or recipient exerted a powerful influence over their lives. It meant they encountered many unusual experiences, different ones from people who had other life-threatening diseases or life-saving medical procedures. Their unusual experiences included having to wait a long and uncertain amount of time for their treatment, enduring false alarms, being saved by an organ from an unknown dead person, and living the remainder of their lives with a suppressed immune system. When added to extreme shortness of breath and other difficulties of end-stage lung disease, those experiences posed many personal and psychological challenges. In particular, both candidates and recipients were forced to rethink their identities and deal with uncertainty, powerlessness, and guilt. They were also affected by their specific lung diseases and individual circumstances related to their loved ones, medical teams, finances, length of the waiting list in their area, and the impact of their new lung(s), especially with regard to side effects and complications. Some were luckier than others.