Chemo in closet: Doctor finds way to treat Nevada's cancer patients for Free

Chemo in closet: Doctor finds way to treat Nevada's cancer patients

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Christina Aguilar sits in a converted storage room of a Las Vegas medical center, the best hope for underinsured cancer patients to get the treatment they need.


Christina Aguilar, 28, is being treated for advanced-stage ovarian cancer in Nevada.


"I thought, 'Why am I getting insurance if it's not going to pay for the most important thing?' " she says, recalling the day she learned her insurance wouldn't cover treatment.

Getting chemo in an old storage space isn't the most ideal situation, but it's her only choice. Watch chemo in a closet »

Earlier this year, state budget cuts in Nevada resulted in the slashing of the outpatient cancer center at the University Medical Center's oncology clinic, forcing patients to find treatment on their own.

"We're supposed to be the safety net for patients, and yet obviously the safety net has holes in it," says Kathleen Silver, the CEO of University Medical Center.

Oncologist Nick Spirtos found a solution. He persuaded his partners to take on the patients pro bono, converted a storage area in his office into a chemotherapy room and got Clark County to pay for the expensive chemo drugs. One treatment can cost upwards of $10,000.

He's also sought more primitive ways to cover costs. He holds up a clear plastic box bearing the label "Cash for Chemotherapy." Dollar bills and loose change jingle. There are 380 boxes placed throughout the county.

"It helps," says Spirtos, the director of the Women's Cancer Center of Nevada. "If these boxes pay for one more patient's chemo, that's one lady who in the overall context wouldn't be able to have her treatment

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/18/chemo.closet/index.html

Doctors... begging for money with buckets at gas station counters, just so that they can give their patients the treatment they need.

We are not a first-world nation. We're Sudan with nicer cars.

Kudos to CNN for the timing on this story. :thumbsup:

Being turned down for cancer treatment by her insurance company. That is INSANE!

The standard chemo for ovarian cancer is 6 treatments with Carboplatin and Taxol. Each one is approximately $1,200. 6 x $1,200 + $7,200.

You could easily run up the remaining $2,800 (and more) in drugs, exams, CT scans, followups etc.

"Cash for Chemotherapy"

What is wrong with our country, that we've let it come to this?

and it boils down to greed imo. if it wasn't for generous and giving people such as this doctor i would have no hope at all for the human race.

Thank goodness her oncologist cares!

Thanks for the post. :thumbsup:

As we approached the intersection, we saw a neatly dressed woman of older middle years standing on the pavement, holding a sign. The sign said (paraphrasing) 'please help me pay for my cancer treatment'. She had ovarian cancer and no money to pay for her chemo.

We gave her what we had on us - about $40 - but that was a drop in the bucket. I think of her often. We have so many homeless and/or desperate folk here and more every day; so many are clearly very ill. She was the only one I've seen who was so very blunt about her situation, though. It was heartbreaking.

I don't have insurance - I can't really afford to buy it and in my last attempt at finding something minimal, I was rejected, for some reason (probably because I was breathing . . .); I'm also middle-aged. I realize that if I develop a serious health condition, I will die from it - both because it will progress beyond easy treatment before I even know I have it and because there is no way I could afford treatment at all. I've actually become adjusted to that reality, though it doesn't thrill me . . . but it doesn't feel like the 'best health care in the world' to me - not by a long shot.

Taxol is a chemotherapy drug used to treat both ovarian and breast cancer. It was developed using $484 million in federal funding.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/YourMoney/story?id=129651

<snip>

In one case, the federal government spent $484 million developing the
cancer drug Taxol — derived from the bark of Pacific yew trees — and it was marketed under an agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb starting in 1993. The medical community called it a promising new drug in the fight against ovarian and breast cancer.

Bristol did not discover the drug. The federal government did — with taxpayer dollars — and then negotiated a licensing agreement with the pharmaceutical giant.

So, taxpayers footed part of the original bill and now those who use Taxol are paying a second time.

The Medicare program alone paid nearly $700 million over a five-year period, to buy a drug the government helped develop.

Wasn't there some congressman or senator that said anybody can go to Emergency Room for healthcare? Right - like they will give chemo treatments? or schedule colonoscopy? or test for tumors?

It isn't much but thanks to people like Dr. Spirtos who just want to help people and do what they have been trained to do! :applause: