Kidney girl in fight for insurance

By REBECCA WALSH, health reporter

An overseas teenager receiving life-saving kidney dialysis in Auckland faces death within weeks if the insurance firm paying for her treatment stops it before a donor can be found.

International SOS, the emergency assistance firm paying for 17-year-old Radhika Lal's treatment, had told doctors at Auckland Hospital it planned to stop paying last Saturday.

The hospital has challenged that decision in writing and is continuing with the dialysis.

But if the money stops, doctors have told Miss Lal she must return to Papua New Guinea, where she has relatives. She could die within weeks without treatment.

"I'm a bit sad," Fijian-born Miss Lal said yesterday. "I'm so young. I haven't seen the world. It's such a shame I can't live life for very long."

Miss Lal became ill with kidney failure last year and started a regime of nearly 40 pills a day to manage her condition.

She came to New Zealand in October after an aunt living in Auckland was found to be a suitable match for a transplant. But before the operation, scheduled for April, her aunt suffered a stroke, which meant she could no longer have the surgery.

Miss Lal has had dialysis every second day since arriving in New Zealand and her father, Rajendra Lal, who lives in Papua New Guinea, is trying to find a suitable donor.

"If she comes to Papua New Guinea she will die," he said. "There's no option available here. I'm supporting her from here for her accommodation and food ... I wouldn't be able to do it for dialysis.

"She is very far away and I am always depressed here at work thinking about her and her safety."

Mr Lal cannot donate a kidney because he has diabetes. Miss Lal's mother and sister, who live in Australia, are not suitable matches.

Miss Lal said she was feeling "pretty good" but it was difficult being away from her family. She kept in touch via email and fortnightly phonecalls.

Because she is on a visitor's permit she is not allowed to go to school and because she is not a New Zealand resident it is up to her family to find a donor.

An Auckland Hospital spokeswoman said the hospital had received advice that International SOS intended to stop paying for the treatment on Saturday.

"We have challenged that advice on the grounds of short notice and we are awaiting clarification."

She said Miss Lal had been accepted for transplant on the basis it was not going to disadvantage or compromise access to transplant services for New Zealand citizens.

"It was a privately funded arrangement."

Miss Lal's case follows that of Tuvaluan overstayer Senee Niusila, whose treatment came under the spotlight as a result of guidelines instructing hospitals to limit ongoing kidney dialysis to New Zealand residents and citizens. Foreign patients who need urgent treatment will get it but, once stabilised, will be asked to find alternative care.

There are about 400 people on the waiting list for a kidney transplant, which costs about $65,000. Dialysis costs up to $70,000 a year.

A spokeswoman for International SOS, based in Sydney, said she could not comment on individual cases for privacy reasons.

The rules

Since December last year, the Government has restricted long-term medical treatment for foreigners.

Foreign patients who need urgent dialysis get it but, once stabilised, have to go elsewhere.

How does kidney donation work?

* Kidney donation information (Christchurch Hospital)

* Organ Donation NZ