Children's Hospital of Philadelphia CHOP: Special needs individuals deserve life-saving transplants
Kidney Program Attending Staff Madhura Pradhan
Kidney Program Attending Staff Kevin E. C. Meyers
Kidney Program Attending Physician Lawrence A. Copelovitch
Kidney Program Attending Staff Mary B. Leonard
Kidney Program Attending Staff Bernard S. Kaplan
Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer Stuart P. Sullivan
Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Margaret M. Jones
Kidney Program Social Worker Kimberly Sterner
Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President Philip R. Johnson
Kidney Program Social Worker Cynthia Green
President and Chief Operating Officer Madeline Bell
Kidney Program Social Worker Caryle Glah
Chief Executive Officer Steven M. Altschuler
Kidney Program Psychologist Nataliya Zelikovsky
Executive Vice President and General Counsel Jeffrey D. Kahn
Director of Public Relations George V. Bochanski, Jr.
I just signed the following petition addressed to: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP): Special needs individuals deserve life-saving transplants.
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I am urging Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to allow the kidney transplant Amelia Rivera needs to live.
In a meeting with the transplant doctor, Dr. H. Jorge Baluarte and her parents, Amelia was denied the right to a life-saving kidney transplant based on her diagnosis of "mental retardation".
I am shocked and angered by the fact that an individual has been denied the right to the transplant that will save her life based solely on her IQ level.
It is my sincere hope you will read Chrissy Rivera's post about the way she was treated by Dr. Baluarte and a member of the social work staff and that you will do the right thing and reconsider the decision of two members of your staff and allow her life-saving transplant to be completed:
http://www.wolfhirschhorn.org/2012/01/amelia/brick-walls/
Please know that the special needs community will not stand idly by as one of our own is discriminated against in this manner. We will not stop advocating for Amelia Rivera, and children like her, until she receives the transplant she deserves.
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Sincerely,
