Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit has been placed on the waiting list for a lung transplant following a serious deterioration of her chronic lung disease. Euronews Health explains the background for such a procedure.
Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit, who suffers from an incurable chronic lung disease and whose condition has recently deteriorated, has been placed on a waiting list for a lung transplant, the royal palace announced Friday.
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"The progression of the Crown Princess's lung disease is serious. After a comprehensive medical assessment, she has now been placed on the list of patients who will undergo a lung transplant as soon as it is possible," Are Holm, Professor of Medicine at the University of Oslo and respiratory specialist at Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, said in a statement from the palace.
Mette-Marit was diagnosed in 2018 with a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis that causes breathing difficulties and which has repeatedly forced her to take sick leave and scale back her official duties.
While awaiting the operation, the Crown Princess will not be able to carry out her official duties, the palace said.
The Crown Prince Haakon will also adjust his agenda and will limit longer journeys both within Norway and abroad before and after the operation.
The couple has postponed the celebration of their silver wedding anniversary, originally planned for August 2026.
Their daughter, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, has also decided to interrupt her studies at the University of Sydney to join her mother in Norway and plans to remain in Oslo throughout the autumn.
The Princess has recently appeared in public with a breathing tube connected to an oxygen device carried by a palace employee.
Patients require a lung transplant when they fail to respond to other medical treatments.
A lung transplant is a major operation lasting between four to eight hours. Recovery normally requires a two- to three-week hospital stage and three months of close monitoring.
Following the procedure, patients must take lifelong immunosuppressants to prevent organ rejection. Most patients return to normal activities within three to six months following a successful procedure.
How does the lung transplant process work?
In Europe, countries operate within transplant networks, collaborative systems that coordinate organ, tissue or cellular donations and match them with waiting patients.
Norway is part of Scandiatransplant, an organisation for the Nordic countries that includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
It covers a population of approximately 29.8 million people, and around 2,000 patients are transplanted every year within the network.
As of 1 January 2026, 61 people were waiting for a lung transplant through Scandiatransplant, according to the organisation's latest data.
In Norway, around 30 people receive a lung transplant every year, according to Oslo University Hospital, the only center in the country that performs this procedure.
The average waiting time in Norway in 2025 was six months. Allocation is not chronological, and organs go to the best match and most urgent patients.
