I swear to God, I want to get right in his face and spit in it. He tramples on graves like no other ambulance chasing piece of garbage I’ve ever seen.
Tonight that piece of garbage took the stage and told the sad story of Nataline Sarkisyan. You’ll remember Nataline’s story. She had insurance and leukemia. Her doctors recommended a liver transplant, but Cigna refused, and then after massive protests relented and allowed the surgery, but it was too late, and Nataline died.
John Edwards spoke of her story as if it were emblematic of what was wrong with this country. While I’ve taken the position on numerous occasions right here on this blog that we need to deal with the problem of insured people not getting the care they need, this sensational case that everyone is latching onto isn’t necessarily the best outcome.
Why?
Because Cigna may have agreed with other doctors who believed that the surgery, given Nataline’s fragile health, may have been futile.
In a Dec. 11 letter to Cigna, four doctors had appealed to the insurer to reconsider. They said patients in similar situations who undergo transplants have a six-month survival rate of about 65%.
One of Nataline’s doctors, Robert Venick, declined to comment on her case. UCLA Medical Center staff refused to make her other doctors available for comment.
The case raised the question among at least one medical expert over whether a liver transplant is a viable option for a leukemia patient because of the immune-system-suppressing medication such patients must take to prevent organ rejection.
Such medication, while preserving the transplanted liver, could make the cancer worse.
Transplantation is not an option for leukemia patients because the immunosuppressant drugs “tend to increase the risk and growth of any tumors,” said Dr. Stuart Knechtle, who heads the liver transplant program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and was not commenting specifically on Nataline’s case.
The procedure “would be futile,” he said.
Futile.
Like John Edwards’ attempts to drag dead bodies out onto the stage with him to win an election.
What a piece of trash. Anyone who votes for this guy needs their head checked.