Was Crown Princess Mette-Marit prioritized?
It is being debated whether Mette-Marit was prioritized for a lung transplant. Swedish media are fueling the speculation, while Norwegian media are covering the case one-sidedly. The debate is both natural and legitimate in a democracy with a public healthcare system.
June 21, 2026
Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Photo: Liv Anette Luane, The Royal Court Norway
Donor transport with military escort
Sweden’s Expressen claims to have received information that a pilot in Sweden was tasked with collecting an organ in a Nordic country for transport to Oslo. A medical team is said to have accompanied the organ transport, and the aircraft is said to have received a military escort for part of the journey.
It is not unusual for donor organs for Norwegian patients to come from other countries; Norway is a member of Scandiatransplant, which has six member countries. Whether it is common for medical teams to accompany such transport is unclear, and no details of the transport have been verified by the authorities.
A successful lung transplant
On Friday, June 5, it was announced via a press release from the Royal House, as well as at a press conference at Rikshospitalet (Norwegian National Hospital), that Mette-Marit had been placed on the waiting list for a lung transplant. The organ transport to Oslo in question is said to have taken place the following week.
On Wednesday, June 17, it was announced that Mette-Marit had undergone a successful lung transplant at Rikshospitalet. Out of consideration for the donor, the exact date of the operation has not been disclosed.
On Thursday, June 18, Sweden’s TV4 published a photo said to show Mette-Marit at Rikshospitalet after the operation, sitting in a chair.
A maximum of 12 days passed from the time Mette-Marit was placed on the waiting list until she underwent surgery.
Historically few on the waiting list
In October 2025, the Crown Princess underwent a month of rehabilitation at Cathinka Guldbergs Hospital in Jessheim. Completing pulmonary rehabilitation is one of the criteria for lung transplantation. During the same period as the Crown Princess was in rehabilitation, the waiting list for lung transplants became shorter. On December 19, it was communicated that Mette-Marit’s health had deteriorated and that she would need a lung transplant in the future. At the same time, it was stated that the waiting list was currently historically short.
Logical flaws in official explanations for the short waiting list
At a press conference at Rikshospitalet on December 19, it emerged that the waiting list was historically short because more patients had been transplanted in the past year, according to senior consultant Are Martin Holm. At the press conference on June 5, the same day Mette-Marit was placed on the waiting list, Holm gave two new explanations for the short waiting list: natural fluctuations and new medications for another lung disease (cystic fibrosis). These statements have been reviewed by S&P, which has identified several logical flaws in the explanations. S&P assesses that the explanations do not account for the abrupt drop in the number of patients on the list. Read the details and see the sources here.
38% of patients disappeared from the waiting list, while intake of new patients was reduced by 46%
S&P has analysed figures from Rikshospitalet dating back to 2020. The figures are reported quarterly by Rikshospitalet to Scandiatransplant. The data show the number of patients on the waiting list, the number transplanted and the number who died while waiting. A patient-flow calculation carried out by S&P shows that 11 patients who had been on the list disappeared, while intake of new patients was reduced by 46%. These are historically large deviations compared with Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Read the details and see the sources here.
Updated the criteria and lowered the upper age limit from 65 to 60
Without public communication, Rikshospitalet updated the prioritization process for lung transplantation, as is evident from metadata in OUS/Rikshospitalet’s e-handbook. Read the details and see the sources here.Through further investigation, S&P found that the approximate upper age limit for lung transplantation has been lowered from 65 to 60. This is striking given that the international guidelines set the limit at 70. Several prioritization criteria may have been changed without S&P being able to identify them. Read the details and see the sources here.
Overlap between the short waiting list and Mette-Marit’s course of illness
In 2018, the Royal House stated that Crown Princess Mette-Marit had been diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung disease that can progress to the point where the patient may need a lung transplant. Mette-Marit has received medical follow-up and treatment at Rikshospitalet. Throughout 2025, the Royal House communicated on several occasions that Mette-Marit’s health condition was worsening.In October 2025, the Crown Princess underwent a month of rehabilitation at Cathinka Guldbergs Hospital in Jessheim. Completing pulmonary rehabilitation is one of the criteria for lung transplantation. On October 17, while Mette-Marit was in rehabilitation, the prioritization process for lung transplantation was updated to a new version in OUS/Rikshospitalet’s handbook. The update was carried out by senior consultant Are Martin Holm, who is Mette-Marit’s pulmonologist at Rikshospitalet.On December 19, 2025, it was made public that Mette-Marit would need a lung transplant. Towards the end of 2025 and into 2026, the number of patients on the waiting list fell abruptly.
Has Mette-Marit been prioritized?
Editor-controlled media in Norway are devoting significant column space to arguing that Mette-Marit has not been prioritized ahead of others on the waiting list, arguing that the donor organ must match the patient’s needs. This is a strong argument, and one that S&P agrees with; however, the question of prioritization is more extensive than that.S&P assesses that the patient list was reviewed and adjusted in Mette-Marit’s favor before Mette-Marit was officially placed on the list. A short waiting list improves the survival chances of those who are on the list, while the chances are correspondingly reduced for seriously ill patients who, for various reasons, are not allowed onto the waiting list. This is because fewer patients are competing for the available organs.The debate over prioritization is both natural and legitimate in a democracy. For patients who are not given a place on the waiting list, such decisions can mean death. Questions about waiting lists, prioritization criteria, and changes to them are therefore of major public interest.