TheExaminer: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius rebuffed an appeal from Rep. Lou Barletta 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,” Barletta, a Pennsylvania Republican, 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 currently 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 that other organs — that it’s based on the survivability [chances].”
Barletta countered that medical professionals think Murneghan could survive an adult lung transplant. During the exchange, he also said that the girl has three to five weeks to live.
Sebelius reminded Barletta that 40 people in Pennsylvania are on the “highest acuity list” for lung transplants.
ADDENDUM: Rush weighed in on this story today...
"I lit a cigar in honor of Sarah Palin right as the program began. Death panels. Just exactly what Sarah Palin said, exactly what we all knew. Obamacare establishes death panels, and right now Sebelius is it. And that’s what Obamacare says. I don’t know how many times it says it in there, but the phrase “as the secretary shall determine,” meaning the secretary of Health and Human Services. Well, Sebelius is determined a 10-year-old doesn’t get the lung. She doesn’t get a lung transplant ’cause she is 10 years old, and you have to be 12 to get a lung transplant under the current regulations. ... The government's making the decision who lives and who dies, that what Obamacare is. ... This is a forerunner. It's just a glaring illustration that there are indeed death panels in Obamacare."
"Yes, Virginia, there are death panels, and [Sebelius] is it."
UPDATE I: A federal judge has ruled to temporarily place Sarah Murnaghan on an adult transplant list...
In the bigger scope of things, this is the absolute problem with centralizing our healthcare and placing these decisions in the hands of an executive branch secretary or a federal judge. These discretionary decisions should be made by each individual for each individual, not by any branch of the government.USAToday: A federal judge Wednesday ordered that a dying 10-year-old suburban Philadelphia girl be placed temporarily on an adult transplant list for a new lung.
U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson issued a temporarily restraining order because of the severity of her illness, ruling she could be placed on the list until at least June 14, when a court hearing is scheduled.
The national organ-transplant network is to hold an emergency review Monday.
Levin elaborated on the problem of centralization...
UPDATE II: Looks like little Sarah is receiving that lung transplant...
FoxNews: Sarah Murnaghan, the 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl dying of cystic fibrosis, is receiving her long-awaited lung transplant.It should never have taken national exposure to get this done.
According to a Facebook post from Sarah’s mother, Janet, the family received word this morning of new lungs that had been made available, and Sarah is currently in surgery. The operation could take anywhere from six to 12 hours.
