Insurance company delay killed 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan
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.
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.
