Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit, who suffers from an incurable lung disease, has been placed on a waiting list for a lung transplant, ushering in a period of great uncertainty regarding her health.
Mette-Marit, 52, was diagnosed in 2018 with a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis that causes breathing difficulties, which has repeatedly forced her to take sick leave or scale back her official duties.
Her condition has deteriorated significantly over the past six months, Are Holm, a lung specialist at the Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, told a press conference yesterday afternoon.
‘We can see that there has been a significant increase in scar tissue in her lungs over the past year. And lung function tests show that her lung function has declined considerably in the last three months alone,’ Holm told reporters.
Scarring of the lungs, known as pulmonary fibrosis, occurs when the alveoli (tiny air sacs) and the tissue between them become damaged and thickened, stiffening the lung and thereby hindering the passage of oxygen into the blood.
‘This is dangerous,’ Holm said.
This is why she was ‘being placed on the waiting list for a lung transplant’, he added.
To be placed on the list, one must be sick enough — it is reserved for patients who are believed to have only about a year to live without a transplant — but still in sufficiently good condition to handle such a major procedure and recover.
— No guarantee —
For an operation to go ahead, a compatible donor must first be found, meaning a lung of the right size and blood type to avoid organ rejection, and the patient must be the sickest one on the list.
There is therefore no guarantee that Mette-Marit will be given priority, the doctor noted, but added that the waiting time for a lung transplant had become significantly shorter in recent months.
While awaiting the operation, the crown princess will not be able to carry out her official duties, the palace said in a statement, adding that her ailing health would also affect the duties and activities of the crown prince and the rest of her family.
The palace announced already in December that the crown princess might need a lung transplant.
The couple's silver wedding anniversary celebration, which was to take place in August 2026, will be postponed, and the couple will not be able to attend the Swedish royal couple's golden wedding anniversary in Stockholm on June 13, the palace said.
The princess's husband, Crown Prince Haakon, recently cut short a trip to Japan to be with his wife.
Their daughter, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, also decided to interrupt her social sciences studies at the University of Sydney to join her mother in Norway and plans to continue her studies in Oslo throughout the autumn.
The crown princess has recently appeared in public with a breathing tube connected to an oxygen device carried by a palace employee.
