‘Someone lives and someone dies’ Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
Kathleen Sebelius won’t waive regulation for girl with five weeks to live: ‘Someone lives and someone dies’
June 4, 2013 | 1:07 pm | Modified: June 4, 2013 at 3:10 pm
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius rebuffed an appeal from Rep. Lou Barletta 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,” Barletta, a Pennsylvania Republican, 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 currently 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 that other organs — that it’s based on the survivability [chances].”
https://washingtonexaminer.com/sebelius-wont-waive-regulation-for-girl-with-five-weeks-to-live-someone-lives-and-someone-dies/article/2531097
This is an ethical issue that goes beyond the health care system that we have. There is a wait list and a system has been established to determine who gets the scarce organs.
Focus on the organ shortage and not the battle for access. They need more organ donors! One person will get the lung transplant and another person will not.
Wait till obamacare is in full force. the govt bureaucrats will say who lives and who dies. thats scary
The little girl has cystic fibrosis and I read an article where a doctor said if she received the transplant she would essentially be cured and could live a normal life. Kathleen Sebelius’ response is horrifying and shows what happens when you have beaurocrats making medical decisions instead of the patient’s doctor.
A federal judge just ordered Sebelius to put the girl on the transplant list.