17-YEAR-OLD CANCER SURVIVOR DENIED TRANSPLANT

CBS
kisyan.CIGNA.2.615167.html
Dec 20 2007
California

Health Insurance Company Denies Liver Transplant That May Save The Girl

GLENDALE (CBS) ¯ 17-year-old cancer survivor Nataline Sarkisyan has
been denied a liver transplant by CIGNA insurance company that doctors
think could save her.

Sarkisyan, of Northridge, is in the intensive care unit at UCLA
Medical Center in Westwood. According to her mother, Hilda Sarkisyan,
she has been in a vegetative state for weeks and will die without
the transplant.

Nataline was diagnosed with leukemia at age 14. The cancer went into
remission after two years of treatment, but re-emerged this summer,
Sarkisyan told the Daily News.

Doctors recommended a bone marrow transplant, and her only sibling,
Bedig, 21, was a match. He donated marrow, but Nataline developed a
complication from the bone-marrow transplant. Because her liver was
failing, doctors recommended a transplant, according to an appeal
letter sent to CIGNA earlier in December, the Daily News reported.

Doctors said in the letter that CIGNA was denying the liver transplant
because Nataline’s plan does not cover "experimental, investigational
and unproven services."

The Sarkisyans have filed an appeal with the California Department
of Insurance, but the agency sent a letter this week saying it needs
more information.

Registered nurses, members of the Armenian-American community and
Nataline’s family and friends planned to march in protest in front
of CIGNA’s local offices Thursday.

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From: Baghdasarian