Sebelius: Health Care Waivers Are For Union Pals, Not a Dying Child

Investor's Business Daily ^ | 06/06/2013 | IBD Staff

[IBD editorial writer]

Health Care: Kathleen Sebelius' claim she can't waive a rule to save a 10-year-old's life is rich, given she was last seen doling out ObamaCare waivers like candy to union groups. Welcome to the world of politicized health care.

This week, lawmakers pressed Sebelius, who heads the Health and Human Services Department, to step in to help a Pennsylvania girl suffering cystic fibrosis in urgent need of a lung transplant.

Because she's only 10, Sarah Murnaghan can't access lungs from adult donors, only those from children, of which there are none currently available. [snip]

Whether Sebelius should have intervened in Sarah's care is, of course, the immediate issue. But very troubling is the fact that a government official is in this position at all, able to act as a one-person Death Panel about a girl's health care.

[MamaTexan]

Medically, Sebelius is probably correct; she probably consulted with people who told her that the difference in lung size between a child and adult or adolescent is too great and that such an operation would be unsuccessful.

Highly doubtful she contacted a single soul, and with the track record for Dems doing nothing for anyone who can't do anything for them, I'm unwilling to give them the benefit of the doubt.

They enjoy playing God way too much for that.

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Morally, I’m looking at this and thinking, these people are fervently hoping and praying for a healthy, vibrant, and alive young person to die so that their sick daughter can get a transplant.

You have absolutely no proof that is the case and you assumption anyone 'hopes someone will die' in order to access a viable organ is not only patently disgusting, the statement itself says a great deal about the person who made it.

You have neither the justification nor the information to pass a moral judgment on total strangers and use YOUR moral assumptions to attack their character or motives just because they have a family member on a donor's list.

[Bronzy]

I watched this movie several weeks ago on Netflix: “Inhale”

In a desperate move to save his daughter's life, a New Mexico district attorney (Dermot Mulroney) crosses the border to look into an illegal lung transplant. But upon arrival, he learns the truth about where these “donated” organs really come from. Diane Kruger, Sam Shepard and Rosanna Arquette co-star in this gritty examination of ethics, immigration and innocent lives from director Baltasar Kormákur.

[offduty]

You are right in your comments regarding the agony that goes along with the decision of organ donation, but we found the good of donation far exceeded the bad.

Our 18-year old daughter was killed in an automobile accident almost 7 years ago. We were contacted that evening by several organ donation agencies asking if we would consider donating organs so others may live.

I was surprised at the first call but soon realized that even though our daughter would no longer be with us, she could save another person and spare another family the grief we were going through. We allowed the agencies to use whatever viable organs were available.

As I said, she was killed 7 years ago, but somewhere, someone is alive because her organs may have made all the difference.

I empathize with the family that is desperately trying to save their daughters life. And, I understand how not having a protocol for organ usage can cost the life of someone who may otherwise live. In this case, the protocols were written at a time when adult lungs could not be transplanted into pediatric patients. Now they can. Do we allow a child to die because the protocols have not kept up with technology? I certainly hope not.

[GlockThe Vote]

F Obama and senellius.

[MrB]

Yep, that’s the whole point behind government controlled healthcare.

And the left doesn’t ever plan for that control to EVER fall into the hands of their enemies, EVER again.

That’s what the IRS, BATF, FBI, OSHA, EPA, etc harassment is all about.

[MrB]

Remember the excuse that the left would make as to why it was impossible to consider blacks to be racist?

“Because they lack the power to impose their racism on others.”

That “lack” no longer exists.

[Coldwater Creek]

Another thread for those that don’t understand the world of lung transplants.

[msrngtp2002]

Judicial intervention in this affair is completely inappropriate.

In order that this little girl receive new lungs someone else will NOT receive those lungs. No matter the source, someone else dies so this girl has a chance.

The transplant lists are made the way they are so recipients are fairly placed on the list. Rules are rules, and to deny someone else a lung transplant so that we can feel good about a little girl is just plain wrong.

[Coldwater Creek]

This child's medical situation has NOTHING to do with Obama. She needs a pair of small lungs to have the best Chance for a max of 5 years.

[TribalPrincess2U]

I’m anxious to see how many liberals post their little pictures of Kathleen Sebelius with her saying ‘she can’t intervene’, like they did Rubio drinking water.

Zero! If anything, leftist rag will spin it as usual.

[Coldwater Creek]

Lung transplant are a very different breed than say a liver or a kidney. For starters the lungs are way more difficult to harvest. They bruise easily. The lung also continues to be subject to damage after tx because of all the stuff that we breathe in the course of life. The cost is close to a million dollars, and even if successful, begins to deteriorate rapidly after the first year, and is given only a 5 year survival rate. Yes, the shaved lung might by her some time, but in few years without doubt she will need another tx.

[Coldwater Creek]

You need to get it right. Shaved adult lungs in a child has a very LOW success rate. I have a terminal lung disease and talk to people waiting for the “call” many times each day.

[liberalh8ter]

Sarah Palin informed of the death panels on August 7, 2009. Obamacare was passed in Congress on March 20, 2010 signed by Jugears on March 23, 2010.

[Coldwater Creek]

I have a terminal lung disease, NEVER HAS MY RACE, RELIGON, OR POLITICAL AFFILATION been even remotely had any effect on my treatment. Everyone just needs to settle down. This about a dying child and parents who would go to any length to try to save their. The sad truth is that she is more than likely going to die within the next tear anyways. She will NEVER have a normal life.

[Coldwater Creek]

THANK YOU! I have Pulmonary Fibrosis, terminal w/out a transplant. I agree with you completely.

[Coldwater Creek]

This the protocol of transplant doctors who are about saving lives. Since 2005 when these rules were put into place, again by doctors and other transplant experts, there has been only a 5% increase in success.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Government paid medical care will NOT be given to anyone who doesn’t vote for and give money to Democrats.

There, fixed it.

Doctors will still take cash I'd bet.

[Coldwater Creek]

I am a terminal lung patient. The poster who you said was morally in trouble is exactly right. Without a transplant I will be dead within a few months to a year at most. That being said I agree with Sebulis, but OTOH, I can't fault the parents for trying to keep their alive if only for a short time

[Coldwater Creek]

I have Pulmonary Fibrosis. Terminal with out a transplant. I talk to terminally ill lung patients many times a day. Sebelius was right on target. This tells me that someone had already don their home work. Everyone is talking from an emotional viewpoint because this a child. Are you as concerned about the 35 yo mother of several children that needs those lungs.

[Coldwater Creek]

First, I am very sorry fort your lost. Shaved lungs have a very low success rate, otherwise the protocol would have been changed long ago. Perhaps, time would better be spent getting parents of children that would allow their small children to become donors if the unthinkable happened. Lungs are an entirely different breed than say a liver or kidney.