Health News
- Plight Of Woman Needing Lung Transplant, Who Has Fallen Through The Cracks Of The Health-care System, Gets Attention From Cnn
Update: CNN reports that Kentucky issued a Medicaid provider number to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and the hospital confirmed that they now have enrolled in Kentucky Medicaid and are working to complete the enrollment of some of their...
- Lung Cancer Gets Much Less Research Funding Than Other Cancers, But Is Deadlier, Especially In Kentucky
Lung cancer takes more lives annually than breast, prostate, and colon cancers combined, but the disease "generally doesn't get the public attention or research dollars in proportion to its lethality," Arielle Densen, co-founder of Lung Cancer Free...
- Lexington Tv Reporter Was Moved To Donate A Kidney To A Still-unknown Stranger And Hopes Her Story Will Encourage Others
Lexington television reporter Leigh Searcy donated one of her kidneys to an unknown stranger and explained it to her 5-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son this way: "It's like having two cookies and sharing one with someone who doesn't...
- Uk Surgeons First To Do Life-saving Lung Procedures In Tandem
Surgeons at the University of Kentucky are the first in medical history to perform two procedures in tandem to bridge a lung transplantation. The procedures were performed first on Wanda Craig, 68, who is now the oldest person to be "bridged to transplant...
- Northwest Hospital Clinical Educator Recognized By The American Lung Association Of Maryland
Lee Chiat, clinical educator for the Respiratory Therapy department at Northwest Hospital in Randallstown, has been awarded the American Lung Association of Maryland?s 2008 Distinguished Service Award in the field of Lung Health. The award celebrates...
Health News
Kentucky woman finally gets lung transplants
After months of waiting, the 24-year-old woman who received national attention over her financial and policy battle with Medicare and Medicaid to get lung transplants has new lungs and is resting comfortably in a Pittsburgh hospital, Cheryl Truman reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Katie Prager's case received national attention because she has cystic fibrosis with a Burkholderia cepacia infection, and only two hospitals in the U.S. are qualified to do lung transplants on such patients. Further complicating matters, Prager's insurance, a combination of Medicare and Medicaid, considered the hospital that would do her surgery, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, out of network.
"That left Prager sick at University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital, her only in-network option," Truman writes.
In April, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center applied to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services for a limited permit to take Prager's case, which eventually cleared the way for Prager to get her lung transplants.
Prager's husband, Dalton, had the same condition as his wife, but was able to get a double lung transplant in November 2014 through his parents' insurance.
Prager, 24, is on a ventilator, but is communicating with a dry-erase board.
"I'm sore, but I'm so, so happy and blessed. God has blessed me so much and I am forever in debt and grateful to my donor and their family," she wrote.
Debra Donovan said of her daughter: "It's amazing how well she's doing. She looks really well. ... She just looks beautiful."
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| Katie Prager and her mother, Debra Donavan, left, at UK Chandler Hospital in April. (Photo: Lexington Herald-Leader) |
"That left Prager sick at University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital, her only in-network option," Truman writes.
In April, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center applied to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services for a limited permit to take Prager's case, which eventually cleared the way for Prager to get her lung transplants.
Prager's husband, Dalton, had the same condition as his wife, but was able to get a double lung transplant in November 2014 through his parents' insurance.
Prager, 24, is on a ventilator, but is communicating with a dry-erase board.
"I'm sore, but I'm so, so happy and blessed. God has blessed me so much and I am forever in debt and grateful to my donor and their family," she wrote.
Debra Donovan said of her daughter: "It's amazing how well she's doing. She looks really well. ... She just looks beautiful."
- Plight Of Woman Needing Lung Transplant, Who Has Fallen Through The Cracks Of The Health-care System, Gets Attention From Cnn
Update: CNN reports that Kentucky issued a Medicaid provider number to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and the hospital confirmed that they now have enrolled in Kentucky Medicaid and are working to complete the enrollment of some of their...
- Lung Cancer Gets Much Less Research Funding Than Other Cancers, But Is Deadlier, Especially In Kentucky
Lung cancer takes more lives annually than breast, prostate, and colon cancers combined, but the disease "generally doesn't get the public attention or research dollars in proportion to its lethality," Arielle Densen, co-founder of Lung Cancer Free...
- Lexington Tv Reporter Was Moved To Donate A Kidney To A Still-unknown Stranger And Hopes Her Story Will Encourage Others
Lexington television reporter Leigh Searcy donated one of her kidneys to an unknown stranger and explained it to her 5-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son this way: "It's like having two cookies and sharing one with someone who doesn't...
- Uk Surgeons First To Do Life-saving Lung Procedures In Tandem
Surgeons at the University of Kentucky are the first in medical history to perform two procedures in tandem to bridge a lung transplantation. The procedures were performed first on Wanda Craig, 68, who is now the oldest person to be "bridged to transplant...
- Northwest Hospital Clinical Educator Recognized By The American Lung Association Of Maryland
Lee Chiat, clinical educator for the Respiratory Therapy department at Northwest Hospital in Randallstown, has been awarded the American Lung Association of Maryland?s 2008 Distinguished Service Award in the field of Lung Health. The award celebrates...