'Wallet biopsy': Organ transplant often depends on patient's finances
By JoNel Aleccia, Kaiser Health News
Posted at 6:52 AM ET, Mon December 24, 2018
Loaded: 0%
Progress: 0%
Source: CNN
New program gives incentive to kidney donors 03:19
When Patrick Mannion heard about the Michigan woman denied a heart transplant because she couldn't afford the anti-rejection drugs, he knew what she was up against.
On social media posts of a letter that went viral last month, Hedda Martin, 60, of Grand Rapids, was informed that she was not a candidate for a heart transplant because of her finances. It recommended "a fundraising effort of $10,000."
Two years ago, Mannion, of Oxford, Conn., learned he needed a double-lung transplant after contracting idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive, fatal disease. From the start, hospital officials told him to set aside $30,000 in a separate bank account to cover the costs.
Mannion, 59, who received his new lungs in May 2017, reflected: "Here you are, you need a heart -- that's a tough road for any person," he said. "And then for that person to have to be a fundraiser?"
Martin's case sparked outrage over a transplant system that links access to a lifesaving treatment to finances. But requiring proof of payment for organ transplants and post-operative care is common, transplant experts say.