INSURANCE COMPANY DELAY KILLED 17-YEAR-OLD NATALINE SARKISYAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.12.2007 17:57 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Nataline Sarkisyan, 17, awaiting a liver transplant
died Thursday in UCLA Medical Center.

Nataline, who was fighting leukemia, developed liver failure after
complications from a bone marrow transplant she received from her
brother last month.

December 11, 2007 the girl’s parents asked Cigna Insurance Company
to finance the operation. However, the company refused to cover
the cost of the transplant, saying the $75 thousand surgery was too
experimental.

On Thursday, friends, family and members of a nurses association held
a protest outside Cigna headquarters in Glendale, urging the insurance
company to reconsider. During the protest, Nataline’s mother got word
Cigna had changed its mind and would make an exception for Nataline’s
surgery. But the girl died an hour after the news came.

Attorneys for the Sarkisyan family intend to pursue legal action
against Cigna HealthCare.