The only time I order liver

[lame54]

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=944
Thursday, December 20th, 2007
Life Denied

Nurses, Family of Sick Teen March on Health Insurance Company Thursday

17- year-old girl needs liver transplant, CIGNA denies

Registered nurses, family and concerned community members will march on the corporate offices of health insurance giant CIGNA in Glendale this Thursday to protest the company’s denial of a life-saving liver transplant for 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee announced today. The nurses will accompany the family and demand that CIGNA approve the transplant. In addition, the family and the nurses are urgently appealing to the public to call CIGNA at 818-500-6262 and demand they provide the care Nataline needs.


What: March on CIGNAWhen: Thursday, Dec. 20, 11:00 amWhere: CIGNA Headquarters, Glendale 400 N Brand Blvd, St. 400, Glendale, CA 91203

[glowing]

1. Their offices are closed... that's what the line says now.

Before the automaton voice hangs up.. it says... "a business of caring"... yeah right.

[JTFrog]

2. They are in California, so Pacific time there is 7:50 am. n/t

[glowing]

4. I didn't even think about it.. I'm well into my day here.. OOPs.

I didn't even think about looking at the clock.. I thought maybe they were closed for the holidays already or were closing the line because they are going to get blasted today.

[T Wolf]

3. A better response would be to take the liver from CIGNA's CEO.

Unless those making the decisions are made to suffer the consequences of their decisions, nothing will change.

Will we EVER learn this lesson?

[TahitiNut]

5. It's probably cirrhotic.

:shrug:

[JeanGrey]

6. I went and read this article. I think the reason they are refusing

the transplant is not financial. She has other major organ failure. It is very hard to get a transplant, you almost have to be in perfect health otherwise. Even people with liver cancer RARELY get a transplant unless the cancer has not spread outside the organ (found out through testing) and if the otherwise overall health is good.

This girl doesn't sound like she meets those qualifications even if her doctors believe that it will work.

I know that many times people want a transplant even if there is a small chance of success. THAT is how Cigna is justifying not spending the money.

Having said that, I hope she gets it!!

[lame54]

7. maybe you missed this part...

Medically speaking, her doctors say that she is ready for the transplant. They also believe that her other organs will recover on their own if the liver is transplanted. CIGNA has ignored this medical decision and calls the transplant “experimental” as justification for denying the treatment.

[JeanGrey]

8. What they believe and what happens are usually two different

things. I have had a transplant so I know how very VERY difficult it is to get one, and I would have never gotten one if I had ANY other major organ failure. My insurance would not have paid for it either based upon probability of success. And there are so few organs you have to understand why they do this. If they transplant someone who doesn't make it, then someone COULD have lived that might have had that organ instead, and basically two people die.