After budget cuts, Indiana baby denied life-saving treatment

[Indianademocrat91]

Source: Yahoo News

An Indiana baby needs life-saving surgery, but the state health care agency -- whose budget was slashed this year -- won't pay for it.

Six-month-old Seth Petreikis suffers from complete DiGeorge syndrome, which keeps him from developing a thymus, an infection-fighting glandular organ. He needs a transplant that's been pioneered by a specialist at Duke University in North Carolina. But the procedure costs $500,000, and the state's Family Social Services Administration won't pay for it under the state's Medicaid, reports the Northwest Indiana Times. It claims that the treatment is "experimental" -- even though 58 of 60 children to receive it have survived.

We last wrote about Indiana's FSSA after some of its staffers told parents to drop off their developmentally disabled children at homeless shelters. The parents had failed to receive schedule Medicare waivers to pay for care, after Gov. Mitch Daniels -- who is now weighing a possible 2012 GOP presidential run -- cut the agency's funding to deal with a budget shortfall.

As we've reported, Arizona, suffering from its own budget crunch, has cut funding for certain medical transplants for people with diseases such as leukemia and hepatitis B.
Seth's parents have set up a fund for those who want to contribute to the cost of his treatment.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/after-budget-cuts-indiana-baby-denied-life-saving-treatment#mwpphu-container

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This is fucking disgusting. They are so pro-life that they will let a baby die..fucking pigs.

[Tansy_Gold]

1. K&R from a former Hooser --

And calling them fucking pigs is entirely too kind to them, as well as a gross insult to sexual active swine.


TG, TT

[Beavker]

2. Despite the 'good things' this Country offers

It takes one story like this for me to state that this country blows.

We claim to be superior to all, yet this happens. How do others do it? Keep spouting the rhetoric? Are they blind? Illiterate? I get the Rich pigs...but normal folk? Humans just don't 'feel' anymore. It's being bred out I guess.

[indimuse]

3. God BLESS America!

;(

[chatnoir]

4. K&R Murderous bastards

This is f****** criminal!

Oh, and some of these comments are effing priceless:

"John 2 minutes ago
Don't blame governor, why did the parents have a child they couldn't afford to insure? Parents are responsible for kids not governors. What 500,000 cut could be made to pay for the surgery? Anyone receiving benefits from the state of Indiana is more responsible than the governor."

[Indianademocrat91]

5. there are worse ones than that...

it's just so disgusting that people can act this way...This happened in my own town before as well..insurers are the real murderers and the refucklicans are their accomplices. http://www.theindychannel.com/call6/15757002/detail.html

Our town raised the money in time however, it wasnt in time as he died before the operation could happen.

It's a sad and twisted world where companies think they can put a price on a life and have no problem with people dying at their feet...

[ejpoeta]

13. that's nice. very nice.

[burnsei sensei]

6. We have the best health care in the world!

Yeah right.
We have the best health care only for those who can afford it.
Hear the message.
Edit it in your mind.
Stick to the truth.

[pnwmom]

7. Maybe the surgery would be life-saving, but this syndrome

is extremely serious, even apart from the thymus issue. For example, many of these babies also have heart and kidney issues. Until fairly recently, it wasn't thought that babies with this syndrome could survive at all. My heart goes out to these parents, and to all parents who are suffering with sick children.

[pdefalla]

14. Until recently?

58 out of 60 patients who have received this operation survived. They would not be considering this operation if it were not indicated (if the baby had heart or kidney problems). The problem is that the Governor (AKA Death Panel) doesn't care whether the baby lived or died. Dollars come first, people second. Just like the tax "compromise"....

[LisaL]

22. He actually does have heart problems. He already had

heart surgery, but he still can have the transplant if it were paid for.

[Peter1x9]

8. The Repukes only care about children until they are born.

n/t

[Bandit]

9. Republican "Death Panels" for real..

Money is far more important than any human life according to Republicans..USA...USA...USA...

[City Lights]

10. Death panels have now arrived in Arizona and Indiana.

:argh:

My heart goes out to this family. :cry:

[No Elephants]

18. And probably coming soon to a governmental unit near you.

[old mark]

11. The traditional answer back in the early Clinton days when RWers/fundies

had a lot of power in local and state governments was "NO ONE TOLD YOU TO HAVE KIDS"...several people complained about me last week when I said here that RW republicans were not decent people - I rest my case.


mark

[LiberalEsto]

12. Yoohoo! Right-to-Lifers!

I wish they would shut their yaps and do something to help a real, living, BORN baby.

[blackspade]

15. Where are the pro-life fundie douche bags?

You would think that they would be having fund-raisers for this family and the ones in AZ to boot.
Shouldn't their churches be kicking in money?

Oh, that's right, it has nothing to do with babies, it is about controlling women's bodies.
Rethug austerity measures = Lame.

[bullwinkle428]

16. Republican death panel. This needs to be shouted from the rooftops.

[Ginto]

17. This may be unpopular, but 500K is just too much to spend here.

On a child that may survive, but is very likely to have serious health problems it's whole life. We're going to have to face these hard choices eventually.

[No Elephants]

19. Grim Reaper, is that you?

[Ginto]

21. Call me the Grim Realist. nt

[displacedvermoter]

24. If they must die, then let them die and decrease the surplus

population.

Merry Xmas Mr. Scrooge!!! Very seasonal.

[LanternWaste]

26. What then is the precise and relevant financial amount...

What then is the precise and relevant financial cut-off amount that is "too much" to spend on a medical procedure that may allow the patient to live? On what objective basis is that dollar amount based on?

ed: sp

[Ginto]

27. That is what we need concrete rational analysis for. We need to create an actuarial table.

Would it be okay if the procedure was 100 million? 5 million? 2 million.

We'll need to explore what procedures make sense depending on the age and the future health of the patient.

[displacedvermoter]

28. Isn't the reality that an operation costs $500,000 because that

is what the medical powers that be have determined it costs?

Maybe we perhaps need to explore what procedures and medicine should really cost, realistically and not inflated so a fucking Tylenol costs $25 dollars on a computer print out three inches thick?

[Ginto]

29. Perhaps which is why we will have to look at capping medical costs, specialist salaries, etc. nt

[Mz Pip]

36. I guess that is something

that should be looked at.

If this is an "experimental procedure" then one would think there might be some justification to making it more affordable so more people can take advantage of it and then more evaluating can be done on whether or not it really works.

It seems to me that the medical community would want to have their "experimental procedures" performed to show that they work.

[Heidi]

30. HIS whole life, not "it's" whole life or even "its" whole life. (nt)

[Love Bug]

35. Actually, the question should be this: why does this cost $500k in the first place?

How can they justify that cost?

[Mz Pip]

37. that's my question, too.

I would think the medical community would be happy just for the opportunity to try out an "experimental procedure" on a willing patient.

[boppers]

38. You're assuming the medical community is charitable.

Don't you know that they *need* the money more than their patients?

[mistertrickster]

20. Yeah the baby dies, but look on the bright side, the filthy rich get to keep more of their money. nt

[ProudDad]

32. Correction. The rich get a larger percentage of OUR Commons for their own personal use...

We must change the vocabulary to reflect who the real predators are...

For instance, almost no one "loses their job" but rather their job is "taken from them"...

[Dorian Gray]

23. This story made me tear up

It's criminal.

[Kablooie]

25. Better get used to it. We are in for a long future of government neglect.

Just the way the Republicans have always wanted.
People dying from lack of care and lack of food is the world that we are heading directly towards today.

[ProudDad]

33. Thanks to the USAmerican war machine...

The legions of the Empire...

Supported by both right-wings of the Corporate War Party...

[CatholicEdHead]

31. "Pro-Life" in Indiana? I think not

Since it goes beyond the womb.

[Indianademocrat91]

34. I wrote the governor..never heard back

Mr. Mitch,
After reading of how your administration has denied six-month-old Seth Petreikis the chance of a new and healthy life, I cannot sit around any longer and keep quiet about your double-standards and pathetic attempt at governance. This boy can be helped and saved from a surgery but because you have to "balance" the budget, you have decided to let him die. His blood is on your hands, as well as many others who due to your own failed policies have died as a result of not getting the medical treatments they need. You say you are pro-life and don't believe in the "murder" of children, yet you let Seth die. Please tell me how that isn't a double standard? I don't know how you can live with yourself after doing this to innocent people. You're handling of this, the food stamps, education, and the toll-road give away to big corporations is just sickening and in itself criminal. You say you are a man of the people, then show it by giving this boy another chance at life. Don't steal his life away from him like you have numerous others.

Signed,
***** (A disgusted college freshman)

[Joe Bacon]

39. Gee, where are the Pro Life Catholic Bishops?

Not a peep from them. Guess they're too busy paying off those lawsuits filed against them for covering up child molesters!