Millionaire Businessman To Pay For Teen's Double Transplant

PORTLAND OR (AP) -- An 18-year-old woman with cystic fibrosis will get the double transplant she hopes will save her life. She has a millionaire businessman -- and not the state health plan -- to thank.

Mark Hemstreet, owner of Shilo Inns, will cover the costs -- about $200,000 -- for Brandy Stroeder to get new lungs and a new liver.

"He said, 'I'm guaranteeing this kid the surgery,"' David Rogoway, a spokesman for Hemstreet, said Thursday. "He'll cover it, period."

The landmark Oregon Health Plan, which extends Medicaid coverage to about 350,000 low-income state residents, has refused to pay, saying the double transplant is too experimental and too costly. The state did agree last week to pay for an evaluation to determine whether Stroeder is a good candidate for the procedure.

Without the double transplant, Stroeder is expected to die within two years. Hemstreet's offer lifted her spirits.

"That's pretty awesome," she said from her home in McMinnville.

Hemstreet initially proposed paying half the cost of the operation and having the state pick up the other half. He decided to guarantee full payment after the state declined to participate, Rogoway said.

"The state can give money to people with drug problems, pregnant mothers, and such, but this is a human life. Doctors say this could give her quality life for four more years. That's not worth something?" he said.

A spokesman for Gov. John Kitzhaber, a medical doctor who created the Oregon Health Plan, called Hemstreet's offer "a gracious one."

But he also defended the health plan, which made Oregon the first state in the nation to combine state and federal funding to offer health care assistance to the poor.

"It's not within our ability to begin covering experimental procedures even if we're just cost-sharing on these procedures," spokesman Bob Applegate said.

Martin Munguia, spokesman for Oregon Health Sciences University, said the operation costs about $250,000 and Stroeder's family has raised about $65,000 so far.

Stroeder is to be evaluated for a transplant July 17 at Stanford University Medical Center, Rogoway said. The evaluation is a prerequisite for getting on the donor's list.

Michael Gehab, vice president for clinic programs at OHSU, said the average wait for a double transplant could be as long as two years. If Stroeder becomes sicker, she would move up the list to receive organs, he said.

The survival rate for double transplant patients appears to be about 70 percent -- similar to the survival rates for lung transplants alone, Gehab said.

Shilo Inns, headquartered in Beaverton, is the largest privately owned hospitality chain in the West. It operates 48 hotels in Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Montana, Utah and Arizona.

Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press.

Copyright © 2000 Cable News Network.

This article posted June 27, 2000.