Teen Who Sued Oregon For Rare Transplant Prepped For Procedure

By Gillian Flaccus

Associated Press

PORTLAND OR - Brandy Stroeder, the 19-year-old who fought the state seeking payment for a lung-and-liver transplant, was flown to a California hospital Friday for the rare surgery.

Stroeder has cystic fibrosis, a disease that chokes her lungs with mucus and causes other organ damage. She relies on an oxygen tank to breathe and without a transplant would likely die within two years.

The Oregon Health Plan last year refused to pay for a double transplant, which could cost more than $250,000. Medical experts at the plan, which provides health insurance to Oregon's poor, argued the operation was experimental.

Stroeder was being prepped for surgery Friday night but doctors could call off the procedure at the last minute if the donor organs were damaged, said a spokeswoman at Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif.

"We really won't know about the status of the organs until the team actually retrieves the organs from the donor," spokeswoman Ruthanne Richter said.

Stroeder's doctors have said they might also have to replace her heart. On Friday, Richter said doctors were preparing to do all three transplants in a six-hour operation.

In October, the teenager took her case against the Oregon Health Plan to the state's appeals court, which hasn't ruled. In the meantime, a community effort led by millionaire motel magnate Mark Hemstreet raised at least $300,000 toward her medical costs.

Eight lung-liver transplants have been performed in the United States. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, only three heart-lung-liver transplants have taken place.

Copyright © 2001 Nando Media.

This article posted February 6, 2002.