Hello. I am seeking advice since I know nowhere else to turn. I am a
21 year old male. When I was 16, I had ideopathic thrombocytopenia
pupura. After a year of varied treatment, it was deemed necessay by
the doctors at the Univerity of Pennsylvania that I should have my
spleen removed. Since that time, I have suffered many minor ailments,
contracting bacterial and viral infections often. In September of
1992, I contracted Lymes desease. After seeing many doctors at the
University of Penn, I found a doctor that specialised in treating
Lymes desease, C.C. DeMarco. I was given treatments of high doses of
anti-biotics over a 7 month period. Since there was only a marginal
improvement, and since the slightest cold or infection would bring
back the Lymes desease in full force, she put me on intravenous anti
biotics. This she said was the usual treatment for her patients and
the only treatment that provided a high cure rate. My insurance
company said that they would only pay for one month of treatment even
though Dr. DeMarco and others in the Lyme field state that three
months is usually necessary. After one month, I had improved greatly.
I asked my insurance company for an extension and had my doctor write
them a letter stating that an extension was necessary, especially
since I did nto have a spleen and my immune system was lowered. They
demanded specific documentation correlating a lack of a spleen with
increased difficulty in the immune system fighting the Lymes bacteria.
My doctor and many others found this foolish since it is common
knowledge that a lack of a spleen reduces the immune systemes ability
to battle bacteria and that Lymes desease is caused by a bacteria.
Needless to say, I did not get the extension and since then, I have
returned to the state I was at previously, suffering chronic pain and
fatigue, anxiety and depression, loss of memory, eye sight impairment,
and the endless feeling of being ill. I have now read that a woman in
my same position has recently sued my insurance company and has won.
I want to use the law suit as a last resort because of its cost so I
want to first send them a letter. The help I seek is this: Is there
any information correlating the immune system fighting Lymes desease
and the lack of a spleen or is there any way to correlate this in such
a way as it to be unarguable? And also, any other general hints on how
to pursue my goal would be very helpful. Thank you dearly. ANY help is
appreciated.
Sincerely,
Mark Fenkner
please respond by email: fenkner at clam.rutgers.edu
