Waiting for a Lung — Organ Donors Wanted


“Fewer and fewer Germans are willing to donate their organs after death, which often means long waits for transplant patients. Our documentary accompanied two such patients over a period of four years. “Organ donation is a gift. I have to look after this organ now.”

Leo Veenendaal is well aware that he owes his current good health to his father, who gave him one of his kidneys. Meggy Wolsfeld, on the other hand, urgently needed a replacement organ – a lung – and could only hope a suitable donor would be found in time. She’s been living with a stranger’s lungs for nearly four years now and says it makes her grateful and sad at the same time. She often thinks about her donor and says she even has the feeling that their soul is still with her. The film follows Meggy and Leo over a four-year period: from the tense time of waiting, through the energy-sapping organ transplantation to life with a new organ.

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