RNs Light a Lamp for Nataline
National RN Day of Remembrance and Action for
Guaranteed Healthcare
HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
Remember Nataline Sarkisyan
Who: RNs coast-to-coast
When: Wednesday January 16, 2008 6:00pm
Why: The Nataline Sarkisyan tragedy makes it clear that insurance corporations have no business in the delivery of healthcare. There are countless other cases like this of people who suffer because health insurance has become a big business that is all about the bottom line.
Nurses and patient advocates will gather around the country to light a lamp and honor Nataline’s memory while protesting CIGNA’s cruel abandonment of patients. While California nurses gather at the state capitol in Sacramento, nurses across the country will light a candle in their windows.
In December, 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan from Los Angeles was suffering from liver failure after receiving a bone marrow transplant. The doctors at UCLA said she’d die without a liver transplant. A liver was available and the operation could have gone forward – except Nataline’s insurance company, CIGNA, refused to pay. CNA/NNOC helped to organize a massive protest but Nataline passed away just hours after CIGNA reversed their denial.
Watch the video of the massive protest and outcomes
Teen denied transplant by CIGNA until too late. The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee helped organize a massive protest and media attention but Nataline Sarkisyan, a 17-year-old girl in the intensive care unit at UCLA Medical Center passed away just after six o'clock on Dec. 20 - the same day of the protest just hours after CIGNA was embarrassed into approving her claim.
TAKE ACTION FOR HEALTHCARE
