outside reading #12

I read an article on the Kare 11 website about the U of M Children's Hospital. The article said that only only one child has had a heart transplant since 2005. This is shocking because the U of M Children's Hospital is the only hospital in the Twin Cities that performs heart transplants. It turns out that some children have had to go to other hospitals because the Children's Hospital takes too long to set a date for the transplant. There is a system that shows which patient needs the heart the most. 1A is the most urgent and then 1B. When kids at the Children's Hospital have been moved up to the 1A list, the doctors have moved them back down because of the surgeons vacation schedule. THAT IS RIDICULOUS! These kids should not have to be put on a lower list because of the doctors vacations. The system obviously has a major flaw. There was a story of a little girl named Abby who was born with a birth defect. The medicine she was on out her on the 1A list because it compromised her immune system. This seems right, but the family wanted to have her at home because they thought that would be the best place for her to be. But, their doctors said that if they took care of her at home, she would have to be put on the 1B list. Abby, later went to a hospital in Missouri to have the heart transplant because she couldn't get one in Minnesota. Later it was stated that Abby could have still been on the 1A list if she was taken care of at home. Abby's doctors made a huge mistake that could have cost Abby her life.