Sebelius: I can’t suspend the lung-transplant rules for a dying 10-year-old

Hotair ^ | 06/04/2013 | AllahPundit

[SeekAndFind]

Portrait of a bureaucratic nightmare: A little girl’s dying from cystic fibrosis and has three to five weeks to live unless she gets a lung transplant before then. The good news is that adult lungs can be modified for a child her age in a way that’ll save her life — except that, because she’s only 10, she’s not eligible for them. The “adult” list starts at 12; everyone younger than that goes to the children’s list, where lungs are much harder to come by. The question is, does Sebelius have the authority to suspend those age limitations and make the girl, Sarah Murnaghan, eligible for an adult transplant?

I honestly don’t know the answer. Murnaghan’s parents say Sebelius’s authority is clear; Sebelius herself claims that HHS’s lawyers have told her she can’t do it. A life hangs in the balance. On one side:

[U]nder existing policy all adults in the region with her blood type will be offered the lungs first, her parents say, even those more stable and with less severe conditions. The girl’s parents called for a change in the policy after their appeal was denied…

United Network for Organ Sharing, also a nonprofit under contract with the government, said a committee would review the policy and the public would have a chance to comment on any proposed changes. But spokeswoman Anne Paschke said any changes most likely won’t come quickly enough to benefit Sarah or others like her.

“The policy development process is not fast,” she said in an email to The Associated Press. “Organ allocation policies are created to transplant as many people as possible overall, result in the fewest waiting list deaths overall and result in the best possible survival overall. In developing policies, committees and the board weigh data, medical evidence and experience, and public input.”

On the other:

Dr. Stuart Sweet from St. Louis Children’s Hospital, who helped write the pediatric transplant system, said the case ‘tugs at his heart’ but that no system is perfect.

He said that if he changed the system for Sarah’s advantage, ‘there’s another patient, very likely an adolescent, who gets a disadvantage‘.

That’s the key question, right? If you waive the rules and bump her up the adult list, does someone else die because they’re forced to keep waiting? And the other question is, why is someone on the children’s list if a modified adult lung would save them? I don’t understand offhand using a fixed age cutoff instead of a qualitative assessment of each patient to maximize their odds of a transplant. If an adult organ would work for her and there are more adult organs to be had, that’s the list she should be on. Sebelius herself seems sufficiently troubled by this to have ordered a review of transplant protocols.

I’m flagging this for you now just because, with the attention paid to it by GOP congressmen in today’s hearing (Tom Price pressed Sebelius on it too) and with Drudge picking it up this afternoon, there’s a chance it’s going to be blow up in the media in the next few days. Now you’re caught up on the background. And no matter what happens, Ace is right that having the head of HHS telling Congress “someone lives and someone dies” is poisonous optics with the public already sour on ObamaCare. Good luck with your 2014 strategy, Democrats.

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[oincobx]

>>>But these bureaucrats seem paralyzed from being able to breach a line which... who invented it anyhow? Doctors in private practice?

Transplant policy in the US is made and administered by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network working with the United Network for Organ Sharing under contract with HHS. OPTN has expert committees that draft proposals and submit them for public comment. Back in 2005 they decided the risks of transplanting adult lungs into children younger than twelve outweighed the benefits.

[Errant]

who invented it anyhow?

Here is a link to the policy: http://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/PoliciesandBylaws2/policies/pdfs/policy_9.pdf

This is the organization responsible: http://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/

[NormsRevenge]

Th Grand Executioner has spoken, so it shall be. Death before your time.. ObamaCare delivers.

[Errant]

Back in 2005 they decided...

Things change... That was 8, almost 9 years ago. A very long time in the medical field.

[HiTech RedNeck]

And then eight years passed and nobody thought to update it yet. Maybe this falls in the debatable area, but if all concerned directly with the proposed procedure are copacetic with it (even the ailing girl)... why not, for a set of lungs that would otherwise get tossed.

[Gene Eric]

The govt created the economic environment, and that’s not a good reason.

[chris37]

Yes, I agree that this is a two sided coin. Seems like the face of death is on each side as well, and that the coin is flipped for those that cannot produce or have yet to produce.

What I can see of this situation is that we have put real life Nazis in charge of the most important aspect of each of our lives, and that aspect is our health.

This is going to turn out terribly badly.

[GeronL]

I bet if the girl was the daughter of a Dem bigwig it would have been suspended and never made the news.

[VideoDoctor]

Sebelius: I can’t suspend the lung-transplant rules for a dying 10-year-old

Instead of showing LEADERSHIP and FINDING A WAY, all we get is the typical beaureucratic BULL$HIT.

Another worthless POS politician.

[oincobx]

>>>why not, for a set of lungs that would otherwise get tossed.

Again, you are assuming that the lung would otherwise get tossed. That is not what is being asked for here. They are asking the Secretary to overrule the medical body that sets these standards and add the girl the adult list. So, there could be an adult that is pushed lower by her presence on the list that dies.

[Gene Eric]

No doubt. The commies always take care of their interests.

[HiTech RedNeck]

If as asserted by you, there may be thornier triage questions. But it sounds like it’s being taken as all or nothing, rather than as maybe.

[Earthdweller]

"So, there could be an adult that is pushed lower by her presence on the list that dies. "

That is not how it works..the person most likely to die gets it first..which would be the girl who you will not allow on the list because you like "the rules" even though you don't understand "the rules". But hey..rules rule and government snobs love them some rules..more than little girls apparently.

[oincobx]

>>>the person most likely to die gets it first

Yes, that is what I was saying. If added to the list she could take an opportunity from another person on the list.

>>>because you like "the rules" even though you don't understand "the rules".

I assume that there is a reason why they chose not to transplant adult lungs into children and established two different lists. Putting an adult lung into a child is likely much riskier than putting it into an adult.

>>>But hey..rules rule and government snobs love them some rules..more than little girls apparently.

Hard cases make bad law. Why do you love this girl more than perhaps the mother who dies because she is pushed down the list.

[Forty-Niner]

Sure ya can! The Obama administration bends the rules to suit it’s thug agenda all the time....you mean you can’t/won’t bend them for a peon citizen.

[SoFloFreeper]

So she CAN give waivers to political friends like unions, but she WON’T save a child’s life.

Nice.

[Fresh Wind]

The rule of laws?

Nope. The law of rules.

[Errant]

Why do you love this girl more than perhaps the mother who dies because she is pushed down the list.

This child has been on the list for over 18 months. How many opportunities at life were missed due to this outdated policy??? Why do you insist she die for some hypothetical, when she needs a lung now?

Advancements in medicine allow for the transplantation of adult lungs in children younger than 12. It is the height of obstinance to not to take this into consideration when deciding who gets an organ, and who doesn't.

We don't know if there is someone who will miss out if she gets on the list. We do know she will die very soon if she doesn't. At the very least, she and others like her deserve an equal chance.

[Earthdweller]

"there is a reason why they chose not to transplant adult lungs into children" There was..but there isn't any longer..you should maybe read through some threads for some info..oh and as to the rest of your wild twisted comments to satisfy an agenda of butt kissing Obamacare's mistress, it is not not really cool to bend logic to harm another human unless you are a commie.

Maybe you should ask to be part of the next IRS Star Trek episode...you make a perfect Borg impression. Like the collective much, outdated rule lover?

[Mercat]

My brother needed a lung last August. I’m not blaming anyone for the fact that he didn’t get one. There were a lot of factors which kept it from happening. He died. Maybe that’s why I am paying attention to this story. Also, I’m Catholic and to me, dying is not the worst thing that can happen. We have had other losses in our family. Medical science is wonderful but God is awesome. He ultimately is in control. I just see this as a distraction from some more significant reasons to bash on Sebilius.