PHILADELPHIA — When Joe and Chrissy Rivera sat down with a physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to talk about their child’s medical prognosis, the couple had no inkling they were about to become part of a heated national debate.
Their 3-year-old, Amelia, has a rare genetic disorder, Wolf Hirschhorn syndrome, a condition caused by missing chromosomal material. It causes mental disabilities and may include other birth defects. Amelia’s kidneys were failing, and she would need a kidney transplant sometime within the next year or so.
As described in a blog post by Chrissy Rivera, a high-school English teacher, the doctor, who is not named, placed two sheets of paper on the conference table last month, with words highlighted in pink: “mentally retarded” on one and “brain damage” on the other.
According to Rivera, Amelia was being denied a transplant because of her mental disabilities.
Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/is-denial-of-life-saving-care-for-mentally-disabled-girl-a-sign-of-things-t/#ixzz1lBVS6pRk
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