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HEALTH INSURANCE CASUALTY OF THE DAY: Nataline Sarkisyan – Northridge, CA - 10/29/2008

Posted by Colette Washing... on October 28, 2008 - 5:00pm

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17-Year-Old Girl Dies Awaiting Life-Saving Liver Transplant Recommended by Doctors that Insurance Initially Denies

"My beautiful 17-year-old daughter, Nataline, died last December after being denied twice by our  family's insurance company, CIGNA, for a liver transplant that was recommended by a panel of doctors at UCLA Medical Center," recalls Hilda Sarkisyan.

"Nataline battled leukemia since she was 13 and had been in remission for a long time, before the latest flair-up.  She received a successful bone marrow transplant from her older brother, Bedig, but the chemotherapy damaged her liver.  Her doctors said that if she received a liver transplant, she had a decent chance of pulling through. CIGNA said no, that the operation would be considered experimental."



"Desperate to save my daughter, my family rallied public support to shine a spotlight on CIGNA's policies. On Dec. 20, the Armenian community, and the California Nurses Association organized a protest to pressure CIGNA to approve the transplant. It eventually did that same day, but it was too late. Nataline died that evening."

"My beautiful girl passed away when our insurance company CIGNA denied our insurance. This demonstrates what is so fundamentally wrong with our healthcare system. Insurance companies have a stranglehold on our health. Their first priority is to make profits for their shareholders – and the way they do that is by denying care which means denying people healthy lives and sometimes life itself."

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Sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

Eighty-two percent of Americans think the U.S. healthcare system should be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt (Commonwealth Fund, Aug. 7, 2008). America's nurses know that only single-payer, improved and expanded Medicare for all will fix our broken system and the tragedy of our devastated families. HR 676, by U.S. Rep John Conyers, is the most comprehensive, cost effective way to achieve guaranteed healthcare for all.

For more information, or to contact this patient: Liz Jacobs, RN 510/273-2232.

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