An autistic 23-year-old man, Paul Corby, has been denied a heart transplant by the hospital at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2008, Corby’s family learned that he has a left ventricle that did not close after he was born, so that his heart does not pump the right amount of blood. A cardiologist said he would need a transplant in 2011.
Paul’s mother, Karen Corby, received a letter in June 2011 from Penn cardiologist Susan Brozena recommending that he not receive the transplant “given his psychiatric issues, autism, the complexity of the process, multiple procedures and the unknown and unpredictable effect of steroids on behavior.”
Paul’s official diagnosis is Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). As his mother tells the Philadelphia Inquirer:
… [Paul] is high functioning and spends his days playing video games and writing the sequel to his pre-teen, self-published novel, Isaac the Runner. He carried his ever-present Princess Peach doll with him to his transplant evaluation. He takes medicine for an unspecified mood disorder, his mother said. He has shouted loudly enough that police have been called “three or four times” to the family’s home.
Paul currently takes 19 medications, most for his heart condition, and has anxiety; though he has not been diagnosed with a specific mood disorder, he takes a mood stabilizer. Following the Penn hospital’s rejection of his transplant request, Paul has been “more depressed and upset,” says the Philadelphia Inquirer. He also notes that he feels “desperate” for treatment and that neither surgery nor long, and potentially repeated, stays in the hospital scare him: “I don’t care how long I’m in there. I just want my life to be saved. That’s all,” he says.
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