Montgomery County woman with cystic fibrosis needs second double lung transplant after rejection

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A young woman from Montgomery County is fighting desperately for her life: She needs a lung transplant but most hospitals are turning her down.

Following tubing to age 22 Jen DanleyHe is connected to tubes providing oxygen and nutrition and is fighting for his life.

“I'm also waiting to have a double lung transplant,” she said.

Danley has a lung disease called cystic fibrosis and underwent his first transplant at the age of 13.

“I just remember how much it hurt,” she said.

Now, nine years later, at his home in Narberth, a series of complications has caused his transplanted lungs to fail.

“My case is unique because it's a redo. It's higher risk, it takes longer and there are more complications with the surgery,” Danley said.

As a result, most hospitals refused to treat her.

“So I feel like I've been abandoned,” she said. “There's basically only one hospital in the U.S. that will accept me, and it's in New York, so I need to go there because that's my only hope.”

But living in New York comes with financial barriers, and insurance only covers a portion of medical costs.

“It's been really hard, and I've used my savings and retirement money to get here,” Laurel Danley said.

Jen's mother, Laurel, was determined to save her daughter's life and cared for her for decades.

“We moved multiple times to get better care,” she said.

Now they Funds are raised with the help of the Pediatric Organ Transplant Association.

“Every week it feels like it's getting worse,” Jen Danley said.

The wait is so hard, and right now the only challenge is managing Jen's fragile condition with lots of medication.

“It's tough. It's getting hard to swallow and breathe,” Laurel Danley said.

The mother-daughter duo remains hopeful that they will somehow make it to New York and find their dream match.

Jen and her mother are packing emergency bags in hopes of receiving a phone call.

Doctors said that because of advances in drug treatment, most people with cystic fibrosis do not need a lung transplant, which became a reality after Jen was diagnosed.