Medicaid will fund toddler's transplant
A Monument toddler in need of a second multi-organ transplant will receive Medicaid funding after her family's plight became mired in red tape and triggered a media frenzy.
Officials with the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing announced minutes ago that Emerson White, 2, will be covered by Medicaid after her family was initially told it would be cut off effective Jan. 31.
Emerson was born with an unnamed metabolic disorder that left her unable to digest food. In June, she underwent a rare transplant of the small intestine, liver and pancreas at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, one of the only such hospitals to perform such procedures.
She has remained at the hospital, and on New Year's Eve, her family learned her new small intestine had died, leaving her to go through it all over again.
A few days later the family was informed the Medicaid funding it was relying on would end, because she'd exceeded her allowable hospital stay.
After an inquiry from The Gazette and ensuing widespread media coverage in Colorado and Nebraska, Medicaid officials have spent the last week in phone calls and poring over regulations to restore funding.
About 1 p.m., officials arrived at a solution that will help Emerson avoid a lapse in coverage.
Her mother, Erika, said this now allows the family to focus on the girl's health. "People are literally out in the hall going, 'Yay, we need to celebrate!'" said Joanne Lindsay, spokeswoman for the Colorado program.
White said the ordeal was trying, but her hope is that other families might find things easier as a result. "Maybe if something good can come of all of this, then maybe I can somehow find a reason for this. And that's my hope."
