http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/now_ny_is_buying_him_new_heart_7rC8vMnPw6BggD3B8UcwZI


Taxpayers may pay $800,000 to give a life-saving heart transplant to an upstate rapist whose crime of incest was so "grotesquely criminal" that a prosecutor said he should "rot in prison."

If doctors give the OK, Kenneth Pike, 55, would be the first New York prisoner to get a heart transplant. Pike was flown Monday from the state prison in Coxsackie to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, where 49 patients are awaiting donor hearts.

Pike is serving an 18-to-40-year sentence for sexually assaulting a teenage relative in Auburn. He's eligible for parole in 2013.

A sister and a niece say news of Pike's possible heart transplant has renewed family divisions over the crime that occurred 17 years ago.

But the sister, Sharon Cardinal of Auburn, says the family agrees that Pike should have the transplant if doctors decide he's eligible for one.

"He's doing his time, but he's still a human being. He still has rights," said Cardinal, who disputes the victim's account of the crime, and is convinced Pike is innocent.

"He should be treated as much as any other person," Cardinal said. "And these people complaining about the taxpayers' cost -- well, we are taxpayers, too. We're paying for it."

In this case, the hospital fees will come from taxpayers.

"The policy is pretty simple: We are constitutionally obligated to provide health-care services to the inmates," said Peter Cutler, a spokesman for the state Department of Correctional Services. "They basically receive the community standard of care."

The prison system has agreements with hospitals across the state on how much it will pay for various treatments, Cutler said. If a prisoner needs treatment outside of those agreements, the state will pay hospitals at Medicaid rates.

Officials couldn't say yesterday exactly how much Medicaid would pay for a heart transplant. But an organ donors' group says the full treatment for a heart transplant -- including surgery and seven months in a hospital -- costs around $800,000.

Lots of law-abiding Americans have no way to pay for a heart transplant, and rightly wonder why such care would be offered to prisoners, said Arthur Caplan, a medical ethics expert at the University of Pennsylvania.

But the cost is not the doctors' concern.

"Medicine's ethic is to help people," Caplan said. "Even in war, we try to treat people who are trying to kill us. The ethic -- and I think it's a good one -- is you treat people in need, and don't worry about their character and their past."

Is having an $800,000 procedure a right?

and why does it cost 800 grand???

What if the guy dies on the operating table.... do you get half the money back?

There's 49 other people that need hearts and we want to give one to a convicted rapist?

So the "community standard of care" includes a heart transplant? Does that mean everybody gets free heart transplants?

That's the part I don't get. Give prisoners health care, OK. Paying for extraordinary procedures that mean in the general public can't afford? That just seems odd.

So basically instead of taking that hospital hostage John Q should have gotten his son convicted of a horrible crime so he could get that new heart.

If he's white I think we should give him a heart. imho

Not to go all Grey's Anatomy, but isn't denying him the operation the same as a death sentence?

it's kinda fucked up is what it is

Not to go all rightwingnut, but he is a convicted rapist, maybe a death sentence isn't so bad.

Yeah, that seems dubious. When my stepson was in his accident he had to have emergency surgery to reduce brain swelling and drain pooling blood. He had to be kept in a chemical coma for weeks afterward. He had numerous pins and plates put into his skull and jaw, minor reconstructive surgery on his face, eye surgery, glass removed from his trachea, four weeks of care in the trauma ward, three additional weeks of care after that...and months of rehab. It came out to just over 40 grand before insurance.

But shouldn't a jury decide that, and not prison/hospital bureaucrats?

I don't think a jury is allowed to decide that in these United States of America.

luckily, we have the internet

I am surprised at the number of people supporting this kind of health-care rationing (denying the transplant).

does anyone realize that there are lawyers in this country? a moral outrage can't defeat the law.

Exactly. This goes back to the insurance debate really. So convicted felons - the lowest form of human life in many instances (like this one) are provided with healthcare. But to provide a transplant on the backs of taxpayers... when we can't take care of our thousands of citizens who have no health insurance? The same people that pay into the tax system that is supporting these criminals?


Some would argue that he has a bad heart, therefore he's living out his life with the heart he has. When he dies, he dies of natural causes (heart failure).

Huh?

When you're a convicted felon, you give up personal liberties and freedoms. You don't vote. You get limited interaction with the outside world. The only real guarantees are shelter, food and clothing. They are treated humanely, they are provided with comprehensive medical care. However, you have to draw the line somewhere. Taxpayers shelling out for hearts in prison? I think not.

It's pretty fucked up that felons get free health care better than most low income non criminal Americans, and at the same time I'm getting tax penalties for not being able to afford coverage.