Dec 22 2007
Liver Transplant - experimental?
When 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan died after being refused funding for a liver transplant by her insurance company, the grounds for refusal was that the treatment is “experimental” and not presumably of proven clinical value. The company finally back down, but not until it was too late. Expect litigation any time soon.
US Insurance companies routinely do not cover experimental treatments for obvious reasons. Desperate patients will cling to any straw regardless of efficacy. Notwithstanding that, is liver transplantation really experimental?
It sounds like the company had confused risky with experimental. There is no doubt that medicine and surgery has a great deal more to learn about liver transplantation and especially the ideal management techniques. That is not to say this is experimental. Changing the body’s largest organ is inherently risky but not an experiment!
Globe Health Tours offers liver transplant surgery in India and Singapore
