While browsing through the news headlines today, I came across a story about a 17-year-old girl who passed away from liver failure. Nataline Sarkisyan's liver was malfunctioning due to a rare complication she had from a bone marrow transplant. She needed the bone marrow to survive her on-going battle against leukemia.
The complications from the transplant were so severe, her liver and kidneys were completely damaged. In order to stay alive she needed a new liver immediately. But her health insurance company, Cigna, refused to pay for the organ transplant.
As an excuse for why Cigna denied coverage, the company claimed they do not pay for "experimental surgeries." But Nataline's family fought back and demanded Cigna cover the operation. As soon as the insurance company agreed to pay, Nataline died. Her family is left feeling as though her life was unnecessarily snatched away from her.
Stories like this always hit hard. But in my case, Nataline's death hit harder since I personally knew her for years. We went to the same dance studio, where I watched her grow up, dance, and goof-off in class. When I read the news of her death today, a million negative feelings bombard me at the same time. But one emotion that conquers all is anger.
Nataline was a girl who never had the opportunity to experience a single day of college, or see what it's like to live her dream as a fashion designer. An insurance company determined Nataline's fate, and it's scary to think a nameless, faceless person has the ability to decide whether a person lives or dies.
Nataline's story is just one example of the problems faces with health care. Money comes before saving a person's life, and it is an issue the government obviously does not pay enough attention to. Why pay for health insurance if the company will not cover a life-saving operation? That's the question Nataline's family is asking today.
The family plans to sue Cigna for her death. But I imagine no amount of money could ever relieve the anguish they feel.
Reader Comments ( Page 3 of 3)
31. lizard,
"enoch the magnificent"..really?
thanks man,that was an early christmas present for me.
and,as usual,you miss my entire point by bringing up proactive care.
which many HMO's reward.
stop smoking=reductions.
stop drinking=reductions..
and so on.
i totally agree with you lizard,
but the point of my post was that the health care industry is profit driven.
thats a recipe for,well...exactly whats happening to our quality of care in america.
and please stop defending privatized health care!
american health care sucks compared to the money being spent.
the ratio is atrocious.
americans spend more money on health care per capita and yet we are 33rd in the industrialized world over-all.
that is pathetic!
thats like spending 15k on a beat up "94" civic and thinking you got a deal..
it's just sad.
is universal health care the answer?
i dont know,but i DO know the system we have now is utterly broken on all levels.
how sad in a country with THE BEST medical treatments in the world is only available to the affluent.
and yes lizard,thats includes YOU,you are not considered "affluent",not unless your part of the top 1% of this country and have a string of 0's on your bank statement.
you and i,and 99% of this country cannot afford the top tier services this country offers.
we get to wait in line like everybody else.
just a side note here,
i cant find my bookmark for it,
but i found a study that proposed a universal co-pay health care that could insure everyone and do it for 200$ million less than it's being done now.
would some form of universal health care be that bad?
food for thought.
till next time..peace.
Enoch D.D.S
enoch at 4:13PM on Dec 22nd 2007
32. Sigh...
It ain't about the money.
The story should be about the liver!
Why waste a perfictly good liver. We all know transplants are scarce. many people that could benifit greatly instead die while on the waiting list. People with much better chances to have a productive life after .
That liver was not thrown out , someone else recieved it. How are they doing ?
It puzzles me that someone so sick, with such little hope, even moved up to the top of the waiting list anyway. That also should be questioned.
Why waste a liver? Something about this story smells fishy to me.
reader3 at 5:41AM on Dec 23rd 2007
33. This poor girl was too sick to benefit.
Remember, she had already experienced multiple organ failure that placed her in a vegetative state well before a suitable liver was found.
My uncle has survived 15 years after a heart transplant at age 55 - plenty of younger, cuter, but much sicker (like Natalie) people were skipped in favor of him.
Bill at 4:40PM on Dec 23rd 2007
34. Robismd said it all. Just look at the CEO compensation. Totally justified, while his minions deny everything they can get away with? Great system huh? Take a good look at every, YES EVERY industrialized country has National Health Care except us, even Mexico is about to institute it. When profit and greed are the priorities over health, this is what you get(and deserve) for not protesting. I hope the CEO of Cigna is haunted every night by that girls spirit. You don't think this is about money? I've got some swamp land in Florida to sell you.
Tom at 5:36PM on Dec 24th 2007
35. There are plenty of small examples that give insurance companies a bad name. They deny this little procedure and and that. But this story is the ultimate example. I feel very sad for the family and for the girl who did not get her chance to grow up, have a family and live her life to its fullest. Insurance companies are in the business of making a profit but this is the worst reason to make a profit. http://www.phoenix-life-insurance.com
Robert at 9:40AM on Dec 26th 2007
36. I keep reading this whole blog over and over with amazement.
I have a lot of sympathy for any family that loses a family member, under any circumstances, but everything in this world has to have limits of some sort, even where human life is concerned.
So many of your comments, including that of the original author of the blog, continue to refer to this denied procedure as a "lifesaving" one as though the insurance company had denied the removal of an inflammed appendix or a tonsilectomy or admittance to a hospital after a heart attack. That is not what occurred. You need to get your facts straight.
So for all you bleeding hearts out there that continue to demonize this company for their decision, please go back and read post 11(mine),
post 23(mine) and even more to the point, post 26(lizard's).
As a retired CPA, I can say without qualifications that if insurance companies, any insurance company, had covered this pretty much zero percent chance of success procedure, it would not have dented their bottom line. But if they cover EVERY instance with such a poor chance of success equally, the bottom line will be busted and the company will be out of business. Extrapolate that rationale to all medical insurance companies. Then neither you nor I nor anyone else would have any medical coverage. And there would be no need for a blog to discuss this subject. Nor would there be a need for any ambulance-chasing attorney stirring the pot.
And to those of you advocating government provided health insurance, I pose this question: If health care becomes "government managed" or "socialistic", will that guarantee that EVERY procedure, operation, transplant, etc. will be
automatically approved; no questions asked, no consideration for success rate, and no consideration for allocation of resources? I think not. That's where the "MANAGED" part comes in. Duh.
Why do foreigners come to the US (from Canada even, amazingly enough)? Lesson to be learned here: No matter what the basis for health insurance, it is a complex matter, and there will always be problems.
To the blogger who made the comment to the effect that top-notch health care in the US is only available to the very wealthy, it's simply not true. My grandson was on state Medicade in North Dakota when he was diagnosed with cancer. When he relapsed, he was covered under my son's HMO in Central Texas. For his bone marrow transplant, the HMO sent him to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, arguably the premier cancer treatment center in the world. His BMT doctor, Dr. Ka Wah Chan, was voted the "Best Doctor in the US" in the year 2001. We are not rich, nor from appearance, were most of the patients at MD Anderson while we were there. Just plain folks, most of them. And a lot of foreigners, I might add. Is really a lame cliche'.
And, last but not least, for those of you who are die-hard Pro-Lifers (1 or 2 posts), I have this to say. I am a woman with 3 children and 10 grandchildren. I am 100% against abortion personally. At the same time, I am 100% Pro-Choice. The world is over populated; child abuse is at an all time high. Requiring another unwanted child be brought into the world only to
become unloved, uncared for, and mistreated by a woman who does not want the child or a father who has relinquished responsibility altogether, is beyond any humane or rational thought. I'm all for birth control, Planned Parenthood, and every other thing that will help to minimize unwanted pregnancies, but if that fails, don't force
uncaring women to bring unwanted babies into a hostile world. When YOU who advocate Pro-Life are willing to care for and be responsible for ALL of these unwanted children thru adulthood and then some, I will then consider your cause. It's time for you to either put up or shut up.
So many of you posting on this issue/blog actually sound like hormone-riddled adolescents. Drama queens (kings) that really give no thought, beyond your gut-wrenching, emotional speils, to the long
term implications of your irrational answers. What is that saying....oh yeah....."If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."
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Millie B. at 4:55PM on Dec 26th 2007