Connor Richardson, a nine-month-old boy, received a letter from his family’s Insurance Company explaining that his aggressive Brain tumour, would be too expensive, and therefore, denying cover of health costs.
According to The Daily Beast website, the letter is addressed to young Connor as if he could read. His father, Wayne Richardson, said that his son is “smart, but he’s not that smart,” criticising the insurance company.
Tumor was detected when Connor was seven months old
According to The Daily Beast, Wayne told how when his son was just seven-months-old, he had an unusual cry and popped his eyes wide open.
Connor was first taken to a small hospital in Long Island near their home, where he was diagnosed with an aggressive teratoid rhabdoid brain tumour, a rare form of cancer that appears in one out of 1.1 million people. After the first emergency intervention, baby Connor was subjected to two operations at Stony Brook University Hospital, where the surgeon declared to have removed the entire tumour. In the following treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, it was found out that the cancer was back.
The treatment itself seems to be the problem
According to the letter sent by the insurance company, the problem seems to rely on the fact that St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, after accepting the case of little Connor and placing him on an experimental treatment, adding a combination of four drugs, the insurance company determined that was “not medically necessary”, and warned that “If you decide to have this service you may have to pay it yourself.”
Costs, however, are free from St. Jude’s Hospital
Fortunately for this family, St.
Jude’s doesn’t charge their patients for their treatment and even provides transportation and food vouchers to the patient’s family.
But Wayne Richardson still thinks this is unfair, and that St. Jude’s should be paid for all costs because it helps the hospital to treat children and support its research. He said “You’re taking away from them and their research… because the insurance doesn’t want to pay”.
The family still plans to contest the insurance company’s decision, the letter itself, mentions the steps on how to file an appeal. Until then, the insurance company won't pay any costs concerning the treatment to save Connor's life.
Wayne, who is a retired NYPD Officer, added that he encountered few criminals if any, that coldhearted. “Even they had a heart,” he said.
