Fwd: Emergency. Your help needed.

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Forwarded message:
From: hidden@email-address (Stanley M. Kegel, M.D.)
Sender: Down Syndrome

Reply-to: Down Syndrome

To: hidden@email-address
Date:
97-06-10 15:37:29 EDT

Jodi Riddle, a 21 year old young lady with DS needs
aheart-lung
transplant.She was accepted into the program at Univ Calif San
Diego (the
hospital that refused Sandraa Jensen because she had DS) pending
an extensive
set ao medical and psychologic studies. She has now been told
she cannot have
the transplant. The reasons given were this. 1: Jody
required sedation for a
Pap Smear. 2: A glaucoma test could not be done the
first time they tried
because she wouldn't stop blinking. It was
successfully done the next day.
The hospital claims this is proof that Jody
could not cooperate in her own
care and have refused the transplant on this
basis only.

California law has recently been changed, largely due to the
efforts of
Sandra Jensen, to make it illegal to refuse transplants or any
other
necessary treatments because of a handicap. I am certain UCSD does not
want
to transplant DS patients and are looking for any excuse to refuse
them.

Jody is functioning like a 15 year old. Noone would consider doing
a pelvic
on a virginal 15 year old without sedation. I have difficulty not
blinking on
a glaucoma study. .

I am outraged and I hopr you all are as
well. The only way UCSD will change
their mind is pressure from the public.
Please write and expresss your
outrage to:
Carol La Fanci,
Heart/Lung
Transplant Coordinator.
University of California at San Diego Medical
Center,
200 West Arbor Drive,
San Diegp, CA 92103-8892.

Please post the
details of this case in any newsletter or forum you have
access to.

It is
vital that DS patients are brought into the mainstream of society,
whether
it be in health care, education, employment or acceptance of society
in
general. I believe Jody Riddle has the same importance to our families
as
Sandra Jensen did, and is worth fighting for.

Thank you.

Stanley M.
Kegel, M.D.