Some Hopeful News for a Little Girl and a Couple of Complex Messes

Some Hopeful News and Two Complex Messes

Change.orgHuge news about a petition

by the family of a 10-year-old girl

 who needs permission from a government agency to get a lung transplant to survive.

Here's what NBC News reported last night:

The nation’s top health official has demanded an urgent review of the way lung transplants

are allocated in the U.S., particularly for children, even as a dying 10-year-old

girl waits for the organs.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' letter comes after a week

of fierce campaigning by the family and friends of Sarah Murnaghan, a Pennsylvania

girl whose parents say has been penalized by current lung transplant allocation methods.

This is AMAZING news, but Sarah still needs this agency to make sure she gets her

lung transplant -- and time is running out.

Can you please ask your friends to sign this petition? Forward the email below to

your friends, and

click here to share this petition on Facebook

 to help Sarah live.

See more information in their petition below.

Thank you,

The Change.org Team

OPTN/UNOS: Change Policy to Allow Pediatric Transplants of Adult Lungs Based on Medical Necessity

By Family and Friends of Sarah Murnaghan

Sign the Petition

Ten-year-old Sarah Murnaghan has end-stage Cystic Fibrosis and has been on the lung

transplant list for 18 months. Too sick to leave Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

for three months, she has only a week or two before she will lose her battle. If

she were two years older, she would have a high probability of receiving lungs in

time. Sarah is eligible for adult donor lungs, but because of her age, she will only

receive them after all adult candidates, regardless of how sick they are, have the

opportunity to accept them.

This is a policy created by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN),

the nation's organ procurement, donation and transplantation system and enforced

through United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) which manages US organ transplant

system under contract with the federal government.

Based on a 2000 ruling by the US Department of Health and Human Services, which mandated

that organ allocation policies must be based on medical necessity rather than waiting

time, OPTN implemented a new allocation system based on the severity of a patient's

illness (the Lung Allocation Score, or LAS), rather than the amount of time served

on the wait list in 2005. This reduced the number of deaths among patients awaiting

lung transplant, ensured lungs were allocated to those with less stable diagnoses,

and dramatically reduced the average wait time from over two years, and reduced the

wait list by half. This new approach only applied to patients over the age of 12.

This approach was not extended to children. Despite the fact that many pediatric

patients can use a partial lobar transplant from an adult donor, these young patients

are only offered adult donor lungs after all adult patients, regardless of the severity

of the child's illness. While Sarah has an LAS score over 60, which would normally

place her as the highest priority for her blood type in region, all adults in region

with her blood type will be offered the lungs first, even those with more stable

diagnoses and lower LAS scores. Sarah will only be offered adult lungs if no adult

candidates accept the organ.

Sarah is a top priority on the pediatric list, but the pediatric donors are far fewer

than the adult donors, dramatically reducing the number of lungs Sarah is offered.

So far in 2013, there were 1,133 adult deceased lung donors and only 70 under the

age of 12. The result is only 4 pediatric lung donor recipients in 2013, and 291

for those over 12 years old.

This policy needs to change. The OPTN/UNOS Lung Review Board, a national group of

transplant physicians and surgeons, can make an exceptional ruling for Sarah. And

they can recommend new policies to OPTN. John Roberts is President of the OPTN/UNOS

Board of Directors.

Sign the Petition

The person (or organization) who started this petition is not affiliated with Change.org.

Change.org did not create this petition and is not responsible for the petition content.

change.org · 216 W 104th St., #130 · New York, NY 10025

Personal Comments by the person posting the following:

This is an Awful situation.  Many teens are sexually active.  However one may feel about this, it's a fact.  This includes lesbian and gay teens.  If the info. Below is correct and these two girls were already dating and in a relationship Before the older girl turned 18, then I do Not favor prosecution.  I can easily believe that some parents would wait until one girl in a lesbian relationship turned 18, in order to prosecute her in the hope of changing their daughter's sexual identity.

There is a power differential in an 18-year-old girl who is out of high school and either working or attending college and a fifteen-year-old girl still in high school.  But I don't know if these are the conditions which exist or not.

But since this relationship began when both girls were in school I think prosecuting anyone is cruel.

I know of  a person who is female and dated another girl in high school in Nebraska.  Her parents found out and took strict measures. 

This girl married a man who committed a crime which destroyed her relationships with close friends.  When she and her husband divorced, partially due to his mental disability, this young woman had a daughter to raise.  It remains to be seen whether or not her parents truly changed her sexual identity.  But the pain caused to Everyone in this situation cannot be undone.  And compared to what is done to some gay and lesbian kids, the story I know of is Minor.

Assistant State Attorney Brian Workman: Stop the prosecution of an 18 year old girl in a same-sex relationship

By Steven H.

Palm Bay, Florida

Sign Steven's Petition

My daughter Kaitlyn is a wonderful 18-year-old who is not guilty of anything other

than a high school romance, but is being prosecuted for 2 felony counts of “lewd

and lascivious battery on a child 12--16 years of age,” because she has a girlfriend

who is 15.

Kailtyn’s girlfriend’s parents are pressing charges because they are against the

same-sex relationship, even though their daughter has stated that this is a consensual

relationship. The two girls began dating while Kaitlyn was 17 but her girlfriend’s

parents blamed Kailtyn for their daughter’s homosexuality. They waited until after

Kaitlyn turned 18 and went to the police to have charges brought against her.

Kaitlyn was a highly respected student at Florida’s Sebastian River High School with

good grades and participation in cheerleading, basketball and chorus. She was even

voted “most school spirit.” Now she’s been expelled from school and is facing serious

felonies - all because she is in love. If convicted, she could end up in jail or

live under house arrest, will have to register as a sex offender, and live her life

as a convicted felon.

Our family will do everything we can to stop these people from ruining our daughter’s

promising life. This is unjust and unfair - and we need your help to stop it.

Sign Steven's Petition

The person (or organization) who started this petition is not affiliated with Change.org.

Change.org did not create this petition and is not responsible for the petition content.

Mailing Address: Change.org · 216 W 104th St., #130 · New York, NY 10025

Another complex mess!

When I first read this email I was angry.  As one of the first people to be in this part of Swouthwest Mo. With a Seeing Eye Dog during the mid-1970's, someone tried to throw me out of a public building at least once a week.  I perfected my "broken record" technique in politely refusing to leave, despite threats, angry customers behind me, etc.  Many things happened which were Very hard to take!  And that could have been My dog.

But one of the benefits of Andrew Solomon's book "Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and Identity" is that it teaches people with and without disabilities what having a particular disability is like.  I had already read his chapter on schizophrenia, which caused me to think more deeply.

What Possible Good Could Imprisoning a Woman for her disability Do?  Yes, she tried to do a horrible thing to a blind person and a member of that person's family, her Seeing Eye Dog.

But if I were sentencing her I would require that she work with a qualified therapist on her phobia of dogs.  And I would sentence her to a training class about serv ice dogs.  Whether or not she likes it, Some dogs Do belong in grocery stores.  Any other sentence I can think of only makes the situation Worse.  Maybe All store employees should attend a training course about service animals and how to recognize them.  Then this woman's paranoia Might be less triggered.  Of course, I cannot know if my sentence would help, but I can't think of anything else potentially beneficial to do.

  

From:

Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2013 10:34 AM

Subject: Scared Publix customer sprays seeing-eye dog with bleach

Scared Publix customer sprays seeing-eye dog with bleach

Sunrise resident cited for animal cruelty

A seeing-eye dog had bleach squirted in its eyes at a Publix grocery store

when a 67-year-old woman intentionally sprayed the animal in an unprovoked

attack, a police report says.

The 5-year-old yellow Labrador retriever appeared uninjured, the report

said, but Patricia Lawler, of Sunrise, was cited for animal cruelty

and given a notice to appear after the 4:15 p.m. Saturday incident at the

store at 10155 W. Oakland Park Blvd.

Lawler told police she "thought it was a vicious animal" and feared it would

be a danger to other customers, so she grabbed a spray bottle of Clorox

cleaner off a shelf and sprayed the animal in the eyes and back.

"I realize now it was a mistake," Lawler said when reached by telephone

Monday. "I have a fear of dogs. It was just a big dog with a big head.

I was just afraid."

Lawler said she takes medication for schizoaffective disorder, and paranoia

is one the symptoms associated with her mental illness.

The dog's owner, Ronda Carin Shore, 45, also of Sunrise, told police she

Is blind  and keeps the canine with her at all times. It was wearing a

service-dog vest, an assist handle and a placard, the report said.

Shore declined to comment Monday.

Although the dog wasn't exhibiting aggressive behavior, Lawler said she got

Scared

when she saw it and asked Shore to leave the store with the dog. When that

didn't

produce results, she said she resorted to the spray bleach to get rid of the

animal.

"I was afraid the dog would go wild, or some small child would get bitten,

or somebody

would get hurt," Lawler said. "I guess I overreacted. But I still feel like

a dog

doesn't belong in a place like a grocery store."

If convicted of the first-degree misdemeanor, Lawler faces up to a year in

jail and/or a $5,000 fine.

-end-