Teenager’s death raises demand for US health care policy reforms

SATURDAY, DEC 29 2007, (News Locale) - Notwithstanding her long battle with leukemia, 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan was full of life and wanted to live. However, an erring health care system robbed the Northridge teenager’s life last week as her insurance company denied her a much-needed liver transplant twice.

In fact, Nataline lost to her disease a few hours after the insurance company Philadelphia-based Cigna HealthCare revised its decision not to allow her to go ahead with the operation.

Nataline's untimely death hit the headlines in all the major media in the US for the last two days sparking off a nation-wide demand for health care reforms. The teenager has been suffering from leukemia for three years and desperately needed a liver transplant, but the insurance company rejected her family as well as the doctors’ pleas twice. Although it revised the decision on Thursday, but then it was too late and her family had taken Nataline off the life support system.

Since she was from the US, Nataline’s story may appear to be incredible, but the truth is she is no more simply because of an erroneous health care system that prevails even in the most developed nation on the planet.

The ailing teenager had received a bone marrow transplant from her brother in November, but it failed to improve her condition. On the contrary, complications arose leading to a liver failure.

Nataline’s doctors said that had she undergone a liver transplant successfully, there was 65 percent possibility that the teenager would survive for another six months.

When a request was made to her insurance company in this regard, it refused to oblige. The company relented following a growing support in favor of the girl and her family. But even as the permission came, she breathed her last a few hours later on Thursday.

On Friday, hundreds of mourners had gathered at Nataline’s funeral to pay their respects to the teenager as well as demand a rapid change in the US national health care policy.

While the insurance company has definitely become the scapegoat, people in Northridge as well as all over the US are now talking about the girl’s brave battle against her ailment. Now, they remember Nataline’s desire for dance, music and life and the erroneous system that stopped her from fulfilling the wishes.

1. 31-12-2007 06:57

I live in America, and I think something terrible has happened here... I can't put my finger on it, but I feel like the whole nation is careening down the wrong path. The U.S. has helped other countries in the past. I am an ordinary person, and I am begging the rest of the world to recognize something is wrong here, and to PLEASE HELP AMERICA!!!

2. 31-12-2007 10:06

I too am an American citizen and I feel heartbroken over the death of this beautiful young girl. Insurance companies in the U.S. have been allowed to fleece the American public for too long. How many more people will die because of their greed? We must demand – especially in an election year – that our next president change the system. I know firsthand how important it is to get emergency medical care. I’m an expat living in Paris. I once sprained my ankle and had to go to the emergency room. I had very little cash and no credit card. But because the French healthcare system provides coverage for everyone, I got x-rays, crutches, and medication without having to pay anything. Had this happened to me in the states I don’t know what I would have done. It’s not “socialized medicine.” It’s healthcare to which everyone is entitled. And our country desperately needs it.

3. 01-01-2008 18:01

There is a solution...
A bill has been introduced into the 110th Congress.. HR 676 sponsored by US Rep. John Conyers along with 86 Co-Sponsors including Presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich. The bill is for a non-profit single-payer health system which would provide health care for ALL.

The bill is sitting in committees (where it could die as it did in the 108th and 109th Congresses) if we the people don't start screaming at our representatives to stop supporting the special interests of the insurance companies and start supporting the interests of the American people.

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