Michigan hospital rejects woman's heart transplant, recommends she raise $10K

Not an isolated happening.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/michigan-hospital-denies-woman-s-heart-transplant-recommends-fundraising-to-pay-for-it.html

Written by Kelly Gooch | November 26, 2018

After rejecting a 60-year-old woman's request for a heart transplant for lack of "a more secure financial plan," Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Spectrum Health recommended that she start a $10,000 fundraiser to come up with the money, according to a Detroit Free Press report.

The recommendation came via a Nov. 20 letter from a nurse with Spectrum Health's Heart & Lung Specialized Care Clinics. In the letter, the nurse told Hedda Martin of Grand Rapids that the multidisciplinary heart transplant committee determined she is "not a candidate at this time for a heart transplant due to needing more secure financial plan for immunosuppresive medication coverage."

Immunosuppresive drugs help prevent a person's body from rejecting a new heart or other transplanted organ. The nurse also told Ms. Martin the transplant committee "is recommending a fundraising effort of $10,000."

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