Guaranteed Healthcare

I'll never forget the story of Nataline Sarkisyan, a young 17 year-old, LA youth who had a real chance at surviving her leukemia diagnosis.  Having started my professional nursing career on a hematology/oncology floor at UCSF, leukemia patients are the most challenging, yet rewarding patients to take care of.  One mistake, one delay, even as much as an hour, can mean the difference between life and death.  These patients and their families are true champions and heros in my book.  Nothing got me more angry than the story of this young teen and her un-necessary fight with her insurance company, CIGNA.  She and her family would eventually win their battle, but in the end it was too late.

   Nataline Sarkisyan had a good chance to survive her BMT (bone marrow transplant) with a new healthy liver at UCLA hospital.  She had everything going for her including a loving family, strong community support and her youth.  She was a fighter and proved that when she went through the grueling weeks of post-transplant treatment.  I've seen it.  The fevers, the fear of bleeding to death as platelets drop, the nausea and endless vomiting, weeks without solid food, the mouth sores and the pain.  The ups and downs of watching the white and red blood cell counts drop and then slowly climb back up to normal, healthy levels.  The anxiety of waiting to return to a normal life, free of leukemia and normal healthy blood cells.  The miracle day when the counts remain stable for days, your appetitie returns and you can eat normal people food and your hair begins to grow back.  For a teen, being normal again, is all that matters. 

   Nataline appears to have won a lot of these battles along with her family.  The one battle that she wasn't able to beat was a health insurance company whose main goal was its own bottom line.  Despite pleas by her own UCLA doctors,her real care givers ,who gave her great odds of survival with a liver transplant, CIGNA over-ruled them and originally, turned them down.  Not satisfied with that answer, what caring family would, she, her community, her doctors and her nurses from CNA/NNOC protested outside the hospital and took their fight directly to CIGNA headquarters to force a reversal.  Constant public pressure and nurse advocacy worked.

  In a snide reversal letter, CIGNA said it would reverse its decision "this one time" .  But it was too late and Nataline quietly slipped out of her coma and died later that evening.  In my opinion, "CIGNA" killed this patient with its delays, denials and total lack of decency.  By what authority does an insurance company claim to have the right to over-rule a patient's direct care provider's medical opinion?  Who gave them that power? 

  When I hear presidential candidates talk about universal, mandated health insurance for all, I think about Nataline and her family.  Will any of their plans have a mandated over-sight board to make sure that patient's get care that their providers feel is necessary and not be over-ruled by insurers somewhere in an office?  Who will be watching the insurance companies to prevent more medical malpractice like the case of Nataline?  Who will insure that there will be no more Nataline's to grieve?

  I'll be there on June 19th, in San Francisco at Moscone Center at noon, to  help send a message along with many other nurses to the insurance corporations that they no longer will have the power to continue business as usual.  We need HR 676 and SB 840 in California to prevent more Nataline's.  I never want to hear another  parent say "She's in God's hands now" due to a delay or a denial by an insurance company. 

Nancy E. Lewis, RN FNP