"THESE lungs are RESERVED only for Congress, its families, and Moslems."
Posted on 06/04/2013 8:23:51 PM PDT by Morgana
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is refusing to intervene in a case of a young girl who needs a lung transplant as doctors have only given her weeks to live.
From a local news report:
The Newtown Square girl has been hospitalized for three months with end-stage cystic fibrosis.
Sarah is not giving up hope. She wants to be a singer, but needs a lung transplant to live. Her parents have been with her constantly while she waits at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“She worries that she’s dying, because she’s not — she’s a smart kid. And she says to me, ‘Mommy, will I wake up tomorrow morning?’” said Janet Murnaghan.
Organ donation rules require adult lungs to be offered first to people over the age of 12. Sarah’s parents say that’s not fair.
“Rules are meant to be broken. My child is not a statistic. She’s a person,” said Janet.
Sebelius says she doesn’t want to intervene in the transplant case when other sick children are dying, but Sarah’s family says hey want the policy changed for all children awaiting a lung transplant, not just Sarah.
Sarah’s aunt Sharon Ruddock says older children should be eligible for adult lungs because so few pediatric lungs are available.
She says that would add just 20 children to the 1,600 people on the adult waiting list.
Sebelius has called for a review of transplant policies, but the Murnaghans says Sarah doesn’t have time for that
Sarah’s parents have launched a public relations campaign to try to get the rules changed and an online petition in support of Sarah has been created with thousands of supporters.
Congressman Patrick Meehan stepped in and sent a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services requesting that she address the tragic unfairness and act to give Sarah a chance at life.
Meanwhile, members of Congress asked Sebelius during a congressional hearing about Sarah’s case:
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius rebuffed an appeal from Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., on behalf of a girl who needs a lung transplant but can’t get one because of a federal regulation that prevents her from qualifying for a transplant.
“Please, suspend the rules until we look at this policy,” Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., asked Sebelius during a House hearing Tuesday on behalf of Sarah Murnaghan, a 10-year-old girl who needs a lung transplant. She can’t qualify for an adult lung transplant until the age of 12, according to federal regulations, but Sebelius has the authority to waive that rule on her behalf. The pediatric lungs for which she qualifies aren’t available.
“I would suggest, sir, that, again, this is an incredibly agonizing situation where someone lives and someone dies,” Sebelius replied. “The medical evidence and the transplant doctors who are making the rule — and have had the rule in place since 2005 making a delineation between pediatric and adult lungs, because lungs are different than other organs — that it’s based on the survivability [chances].”
So you’re saying you can’t say why she deserves it more than some other person’s family member? Is it the appeal to emotion from the article, that she wishes she could be a singer, which is so apropos of her needing the lung transplant? What if the person whose place she takes is also a singer, and not just an aspiring one but a genuine trained operatic performer? What if the other person is your track-star cousin? Don’t they deserve the same consideration?
You’re trying to make it seem heartless that anyone would ever dare deny this girl, but you fail to acknowledge that with organ transplants particularly this is a zero-sum game. For her to get a spot on the adult list means someone else has to wait longer, even though this girl might be a less suitable transplant candidate. I don’t blame the parents for trying everything, and in their position I would do the same, but as an uninvolved party, I acknowledge that emotional appeals aren’t the best grounds for basing the decision. Further, my original point was that the grounds for the decision are not the main issue; the main issue is that Sebelius is not the right person to be making this decision for several reasons: she’s not medically qualified to truly understand the implications (and might even be contributing to false hope on the parents’ part), but that as a bureaucrat and a member of a now-known-biased administration she’s the last person who should *ever* get to decide who does and doesn’t qualify for life-saving surgery.
There’s no doubt you’re giving this issue thoughtful consideration, but I suggest letting go of the limits you believe exist.
FRegards, Little Pig.
I hate Sebelius and the HHS should be terminated but the Federal government doesn’t need to be involved in this. Like everything else they need to stay out of people’s personal lives period.
You can’t pick and choose when you want the Federal government to step in because these types of individual cases is what got us into the mess were in as a nation. Look at Obamacare, a bullshxt piece of legislation because our supposed representatives wanted everyone to have insurance and look at the mess we have.
Laws based on what is perceived as a need of the moment from emotional not rational thought. So they change the law to allow the transplant for 10 year olds.. what about 9, 8, 7, 6 etc? Where does it end? Cover everyone.. you can’t and there’s not enough lungs. What about all other transplants? The list goes on.
And I do care but it’s life. I lost a sister in law to Cystic Fibrosis 20 years ago also awaiting a lung transplant at age 24 but was too week for the operation.
"THESE lungs are RESERVED only for Congress, its families, and Moslems."
That picture just creeps me out. What is with the peeling skin on her forehead? Is she a Borg or alien?
I’m “forbidden” from accessing that link. :(
Remind me to leave in my will my lungs to a kid with cystic fibriosis. I just hope that kid does not mind having asthma for 5 years.
نوراگررفتسايهپيدانيستنقشديواروچشمخيره
مانقشسايهدگرنميداننوراگررفتسايه. ررفت نوراگررفتسايهپيدانيستنقشديوار وچشمخيرهمانقشسايهدگرنميداننوراگررفتسايه.ررفتديواروچشمخيرهمانقشسايهدگرنميداننوراگررفتسايهپيدانيستنقشديواروچشمخيرهماسايه ديواروچشمخيرهمانقشسايهدگرنميداننوراگررفتسايهپيدانيستنقشديواروچشمخيرهماپيدا نيستنقش
If I Hear Anything Else, I'll Let You Know.
The face of evil.
I have a stupid question: Can they cram adult-sized lungs into that little body if they had some?
Ilsa Koch, pinup girl of the guards at Treblinka was much more pleasant looking.
LOL. Thanks for that!!!
The child’s parents must have been harboring evil thoughts about The Great and Powerful Zero.
Human organs don’t grow on trees (yet). Transplants involves trade in human organs across state lines.
Whom do you suggest be in charge of that dicey bit of commerce, the National Retail Association?
The federal government set up a board of doctors and transplant specialists to develop medical criteria to govern the system of harvesting organs and then assigning them to recipients.
Should politicians and Sebelius then intervene in the medical decisions of the experts because of media publicity?
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