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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDying teen put on the transplant list after being rejected...something to ponder
the hospital originally said he was being denied for "medical non-compliance"....however, the mom says he has never been ill or had medications before.....
http://www.12newsnow.com/story/23133917/teen-added-to-transplant-list-after-originally-denied
Non-compliance is a broad term, but one doctor said it could refer to a patient's previous medical behavior.
"What places you on a lower part of the transplant list is evidence that you haven't followed through in taking your medications in the past," said Dr. Nieca Goldberg, medical director of NYU Women's Heart Program.
However, with no history of illness or previous medications prescribed, Hamilton believes her son was being punished for having a criminal record.
The teen was under house arrest and wearing an ankle monitor when his heart condition was discovered in the hospital's ER.
Boudica the Lyoness
(2,899 posts)and maybe other things.
But we want to make it about race here don't we. Because we know the more we race bait the better everything will become.
antigone382
(3,682 posts)Here's a few excerpts from just one scholarly article citing a wealth of carefully conducted studies on racial discrimination in healthcare. It took me about five minutes to find, and there are many more.
RACISM AND HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA: LEGAL RESPONSES TO RACIAL DISPARITIES IN THE ALLOCATION OF KIDNEYS
Cara A. Fauci*
http://www.bc.edu/dam/files/schools/law/lawreviews/journals/bctwj/21_1/02_TXT.htm
Statistical data indicates that African-American babies have lower birth weights and are more likely to die during the first year of life [*PG42]than children born to European-American parents.61 For example, African-American babies are twice as likely to die during the first year of life as European-American babies, and children born in countries that are significantly less developed than the United States, such as Kuwait, Costa Rica and Singapore, are more likely to live past age one than children born to African Americans in the United States.62
(snip)
Scholars devoted to the study of racial discrimination in the medical profession have also drawn attention to the fact that African Americans are less likely to be prescribed medication than European Americans. 96 For example, in 1994 the New England Journal of Medicine reported that African-American AIDS patients received prescriptions for needed medications less frequently than European-American AIDS patients even after income, insurance status, mode of HIV transmission and place of residence were controlled for.97 Another study conducted on racial discrimination in the dissemination of prescription medication found that African-American children were less likely to leave doctors appointments with prescriptions than European-American children.98
(snip)
Research also reveals that, on average, African Americans receive less aggressive treatment for various physical ailments even after income adjustments are made to the data.103 For instance, studies pertaining to cardiac treatment reveal that African-American men are half as likely to undergo coronary angiography and one third as likely to undergo coronary artery bypass surgery as European-American men.104 These astonishing statistics are even more troubling in light of the fact that African-American males are more likely to suffer from heart disease than European-American males.105
Studies also indicate that the intensity of treatment within the realm of internal medicine is influenced by racial considerations.106 Even after income differentials are taken into account, research reveals that African-American patients are less likely to be treated aggressively for illnesses and/or conditions such as pneumonia, kidney failure, and glaucoma than European Americans.
(snip)
Research indicates that, after adjusting for income, some procedures are in fact performed with greater frequency on African-American patients than on European Americans suffering from the same ailments.111 Unfortunately, those procedures are of the type that most people, regardless of race, would hope to avoid undergoing.112 For example, African Americans are three times more likely than European Americans to have a partial or total amputation of the leg.113 Similarly, African-American men are twice as likely to have a bilateral orchietomy in attempts to treat prostate cancer than European-American men.114 The implications of this research indicate that the medical profession may detect certain illnesses in African Americans at more advanced stages.115 As a consequence, less invasive and less drastic treatment measures are no longer viable.116
Knowing this, if it was your teenaged child that needed a heart transplant, would you question whether race played a role in his being denied? Would you fight it with everything you had?
mwrguy
(3,245 posts)riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)There's no way the appointment with the transplant team was "instantaneous" as soon as he had the diagnosis. Getting all of them lined up to evaluate her son, have the necessary conferences, the paperwork and hearing from the MELD scorers takes weeks. And that's if the team is REALLY sharp and manages to coordinate FAST.
If Anthony screwed up at all during that time, he would have been labelled non-compliant and rightly so. Organs are precious. And if you can't be trusted to participate in your healthcare scrupulously and meticulously, then you shouldn't get one. Its FAR too easy to screw up the anti-rejection drugs (which number 50+ in the early days, spread out over 6 doses).
If you demonstrate you aren't capable before hand, even once, you are off.
FYI, my sister had a double kidney/liver transplant in Feb 2012. As her #1 support team member I was there every step of the way - from the initial eval to the final days of post-op recovery.
dembotoz
(16,734 posts)sometimes we just did not see them