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One Woman Death Panel: Sebelius Won’t Allow Dying Girl to Have Transplant
life news ^ | Steven Ertelt

Posted on 06/04/2013 8:23:51 PM PDT by Morgana

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is refusing to intervene in a case of a young girl who needs a lung transplant as doctors have only given her weeks to live.

From a local news report:

The Newtown Square girl has been hospitalized for three months with end-stage cystic fibrosis.

Sarah is not giving up hope. She wants to be a singer, but needs a lung transplant to live. Her parents have been with her constantly while she waits at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“She worries that she’s dying, because she’s not — she’s a smart kid. And she says to me, ‘Mommy, will I wake up tomorrow morning?’” said Janet Murnaghan.

Organ donation rules require adult lungs to be offered first to people over the age of 12. Sarah’s parents say that’s not fair.

“Rules are meant to be broken. My child is not a statistic. She’s a person,” said Janet.

Sebelius says she doesn’t want to intervene in the transplant case when other sick children are dying, but Sarah’s family says hey want the policy changed for all children awaiting a lung transplant, not just Sarah.

Sarah’s aunt Sharon Ruddock says older children should be eligible for adult lungs because so few pediatric lungs are available.

She says that would add just 20 children to the 1,600 people on the adult waiting list.

Sebelius has called for a review of transplant policies, but the Murnaghans says Sarah doesn’t have time for that

Sarah’s parents have launched a public relations campaign to try to get the rules changed and an online petition in support of Sarah has been created with thousands of supporters.

Congressman Patrick Meehan stepped in and sent a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services requesting that she address the tragic unfairness and act to give Sarah a chance at life.

Meanwhile, members of Congress asked Sebelius during a congressional hearing about Sarah’s case:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius rebuffed an appeal from Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., 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,” Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., 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 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 than other organs — that it’s based on the survivability [chances].”


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: abortion; again; deathpanel; deathpanels; obamacare; prolife; sebelius; zerocare
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To: Gene Eric

So you’re saying you can’t say why she deserves it more than some other person’s family member? Is it the appeal to emotion from the article, that she wishes she could be a singer, which is so apropos of her needing the lung transplant? What if the person whose place she takes is also a singer, and not just an aspiring one but a genuine trained operatic performer? What if the other person is your track-star cousin? Don’t they deserve the same consideration?

You’re trying to make it seem heartless that anyone would ever dare deny this girl, but you fail to acknowledge that with organ transplants particularly this is a zero-sum game. For her to get a spot on the adult list means someone else has to wait longer, even though this girl might be a less suitable transplant candidate. I don’t blame the parents for trying everything, and in their position I would do the same, but as an uninvolved party, I acknowledge that emotional appeals aren’t the best grounds for basing the decision. Further, my original point was that the grounds for the decision are not the main issue; the main issue is that Sebelius is not the right person to be making this decision for several reasons: she’s not medically qualified to truly understand the implications (and might even be contributing to false hope on the parents’ part), but that as a bureaucrat and a member of a now-known-biased administration she’s the last person who should *ever* get to decide who does and doesn’t qualify for life-saving surgery.


41 posted on 06/05/2013 1:14:52 AM PDT by Little Pig (Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici.)
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To: Little Pig

There’s no doubt you’re giving this issue thoughtful consideration, but I suggest letting go of the limits you believe exist.

FRegards, Little Pig.


42 posted on 06/05/2013 1:41:09 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Morgana

I hate Sebelius and the HHS should be terminated but the Federal government doesn’t need to be involved in this. Like everything else they need to stay out of people’s personal lives period.

You can’t pick and choose when you want the Federal government to step in because these types of individual cases is what got us into the mess were in as a nation. Look at Obamacare, a bullshxt piece of legislation because our supposed representatives wanted everyone to have insurance and look at the mess we have.

Laws based on what is perceived as a need of the moment from emotional not rational thought. So they change the law to allow the transplant for 10 year olds.. what about 9, 8, 7, 6 etc? Where does it end? Cover everyone.. you can’t and there’s not enough lungs. What about all other transplants? The list goes on.

And I do care but it’s life. I lost a sister in law to Cystic Fibrosis 20 years ago also awaiting a lung transplant at age 24 but was too week for the operation.


43 posted on 06/05/2013 2:32:02 AM PDT by maddog55 (America Rising.... Civil War II)
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To: Morgana

"THESE lungs are RESERVED only for Congress, its families, and Moslems."

44 posted on 06/05/2013 4:26:22 AM PDT by Diogenesis
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To: Morgana
Braking personal preference Sebelius says she will defer to the experts.
How convenient.

45 posted on 06/05/2013 4:47:01 AM PDT by Amagi (Obama is never so animated as when he is assaulting the Constitution.)
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To: Amagi

That picture just creeps me out. What is with the peeling skin on her forehead? Is she a Borg or alien?


46 posted on 06/05/2013 5:01:09 AM PDT by sleddogs
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To: Amagi

Sorta like this?

http://kindertrauma.com/images/tizers/valien.jpg


47 posted on 06/05/2013 5:03:22 AM PDT by sleddogs
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To: sleddogs

I’m “forbidden” from accessing that link. :(


48 posted on 06/05/2013 5:37:48 AM PDT by Amagi (Obama is never so animated as when he is assaulting the Constitution.)
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To: Little Pig

Remind me to leave in my will my lungs to a kid with cystic fibriosis. I just hope that kid does not mind having asthma for 5 years.


49 posted on 06/05/2013 5:39:57 AM PDT by Morgana (Always a bit of truth in dark humor.)
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To: Morgana
Good News From the White House Concerning Your Social Security and Healthcare Benefits:

نوراگررفتسايهپيدانيستنقشديواروچشمخيره

مانقشسايهدگرنميداننوراگررفتسايه. ررفت نوراگررفتسايهپيدانيستنقشديوار وچشمخيرهمانقشسايهدگرنميداننوراگررفتسايه.ررفتديواروچشمخيرهمانقشسايهدگرنميداننوراگررفتسايهپيدانيستنقشديواروچشمخيرهماسايه ديواروچشمخيرهمانقشسايهدگرنميداننوراگررفتسايهپيدانيستنقشديواروچشمخيرهماپيدا نيستنقش

If I Hear Anything Else, I'll Let You Know.

50 posted on 06/05/2013 5:42:48 AM PDT by IbJensen (Liberals are like Slinkies, good for nothing, but you smile as you push them down the stairs.)
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To: Amagi

The face of evil.


51 posted on 06/05/2013 5:43:30 AM PDT by IbJensen (Liberals are like Slinkies, good for nothing, but you smile as you push them down the stairs.)
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To: sleddogs
In fairness, I bet Sebilius had some local anesthesia for a minor surgical procedure and what appears to be peeling skin could be a flesh colored bandage.
Serendipitously, the photo seems to capture Sebilius' evil inner soul.
I'd like to photoshop a cigarette in place of the pen, making her appear even more Nazi-Inquisitor-esque.
52 posted on 06/05/2013 5:44:42 AM PDT by Amagi (Obama is never so animated as when he is assaulting the Constitution.)
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To: Morgana

I have a stupid question: Can they cram adult-sized lungs into that little body if they had some?


53 posted on 06/05/2013 5:46:12 AM PDT by Cyber Liberty (I am a dissident. Will you join me? My name is John....)
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To: Amagi

Ilsa Koch, pinup girl of the guards at Treblinka was much more pleasant looking.

54 posted on 06/05/2013 5:46:23 AM PDT by IbJensen (Liberals are like Slinkies, good for nothing, but you smile as you push them down the stairs.)
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To: IbJensen

LOL. Thanks for that!!!


55 posted on 06/05/2013 5:49:02 AM PDT by Amagi (Obama is never so animated as when he is assaulting the Constitution.)
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To: Morgana

The child’s parents must have been harboring evil thoughts about The Great and Powerful Zero.


56 posted on 06/05/2013 8:01:35 AM PDT by Wordkraft (Remember who the Collaborators are.)
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To: porter_knorr

Human organs don’t grow on trees (yet). Transplants involves trade in human organs across state lines.

Whom do you suggest be in charge of that dicey bit of commerce, the National Retail Association?

The federal government set up a board of doctors and transplant specialists to develop medical criteria to govern the system of harvesting organs and then assigning them to recipients.

Should politicians and Sebelius then intervene in the medical decisions of the experts because of media publicity?


57 posted on 06/05/2013 8:41:57 AM PDT by Valpal1 (If the police canÂ’t solve a problem with brute force, theyÂ’ll find a way to fix it with brute forc)
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To: Sarah Barracuda
I wish the best for your mother..breast cancer is a tough illness but if she is anything like you I know she is a fighter and she will make it through this..this poor child, not wanting to go to bed at night because she is afraid she might not wake up tomorrow I cannot fathom that kind of fear. Sarah is worth the risk, you give her the lungs, period..and if God forbid she ends up dying anyway, at least they will know that everything was tried..if she dies and NOTHING is done, that will just kill these parents, having to wonder “What If?” She is sitting in that hospital bed dying..if they do nothing she is a goner..she is just lying there waiting to die..do something while there is still time

Thanks for the well wishes. I do agree with you that if they win, lose or draw, they know they did everything humanly possible to keep her alive in the meantime. Even with my cats, I fight to keep them alive, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. I had one cat with kidney failure, we kept her alive for 2 and a half years, another one for 9 or 10 months while one passed on in a week. It is great to wincand it hurts to lose but I know I did as much as I can.
58 posted on 06/05/2013 10:14:07 AM PDT by Nowhere Man (It is about time we re-enact Normandy, at the shores of the Potomac.)
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To: ogen hal
This sibelius subhuman is a degenerate ghoul. Her soul is black.

I don't use Biblical terminology a lot but I must do so here, I believe she is an agent of Moloch.
59 posted on 06/05/2013 10:15:15 AM PDT by Nowhere Man (It is about time we re-enact Normandy, at the shores of the Potomac.)
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To: Conscience of a Conservative
Transplanted organs are a (very) scarce resource, which makes the decision a lot more complicated than "let the patient/family/doctors decide."

I can't deny that, really. It is a lot like taking a Dodge engine and putting it in a Ford but the complications are many times that. I think organ transplanting is mroe or less a dead end street, somehow, somewhere, we need to find some ways to grow non-defective replacement organs by the use of adult stem cells.
60 posted on 06/05/2013 10:18:23 AM PDT by Nowhere Man (It is about time we re-enact Normandy, at the shores of the Potomac.)
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