Second Arizona transplant hopeful dies as a result of Gov. Jan Brewer's policy

by Joan McCarter | Daily KOS

There's a quieter tragedy than Saturday's shooting that's been going on for weeks. Since the decision by Gov. Jan Brewer and the Republican legislature to cut off funding for life saving organ transplants late last year, two Arizonans have died.

In late November, Mark Price, an Arizona father who had been battling leukemia for a year, died due to complications related to chemotherapy treatment he was receiving. Price was awaiting an organ transplant that could’ve saved his life, but he was unable to receive one in time due to Brewer’s budget cuts.

Now, the University of Arizona Medical Center has told the press that another patient passed away in late December because they were unable to get their organ transplant funded. Although the attending physicians declined to release the name of the patient out of respect for the family’s privacy, they confirmed that the patient that passed away was one of the 98 Arizonans cut off from organ transplants by Brewer and the GOP-controlled state legislature. He “was our patient. He was on our list,” said surgery department spokeswoman Jo Marie Gellerman.

A Republican central committeeman from Illinois, Steven Daglas, horrified at the plight of the 98 Arizonans subjected to Brewer's death sentence, worked to identify funding within the Arizona state budget, and found possible solutions which, as of yet, have been ignored by Brewer.

The possible solutions included using $2 million from an AIG settlement that the state of Arizona will receive or “transferring $1.2 million in funds that Arizona once planned to use to build bridges for endangered squirrels.” Yet even after repeatedly sending his proposal to Brewer since December, Daglas has received zero response from the governor. He told The Arizona Republic that she may be ignoring his proposal out of the fear that he’s trying to politically damage her, but he explained, “I’m a Republican guy from Illinois...We’re just concerned about these transplant patients and want to help.“

Undaunted, Daglas and five of the patients have launched a Web site, arizona98.com, that to date has 26 funding solutions to cover the transplants for the surviving patients.