Michelle Moulton receives long-awaited liver transplant
September 8, 2010
By Christopher Huber
New: Sept. 8, 9:35 a.m.
Any plans Michelle Moulton and her family had for the day completely changed Sept. 2 with an early morning phone call from the University of Washington Medical Center.
Michelle received a new liver during what surgeons reported as a successful, approximately nine-hour surgery, said Michelle’s husband, Marion Moulton, from the ICU Sept. 2.
“It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” he said. “This is just life-changing.”
Michelle could be in the hospital until Sept. 9, he said. But if things go well with immediate recovery, she could be out a couple of days sooner.
The nearly two-day transplant saga started at about 3 a.m. Sept. 2 with the long awaited phone call. Although she was asleep on the couch downstairs, Michelle Moulton didn’t hear the phone ring until Marion rushed down the stairs, racing to grab it before the caller hung up.
He got it. It was the UW. They had a liver. This was the second time the UW had received a good donor match.
Michelle, who had kept a bag packed in their bedroom for more than a month, was ready to go.
Maybe this liver was good enough for her, they would speculate. The first call, Aug. 4, resulted in a false alarm that cost about $1,700 and 12 hours of waiting in the hospital. Maybe she would actually make it to the operating room and the surgical team would actually perform the transplant procedure.
All of those ‘maybes’ became a reality for Michelle in the wee hours of Sept. 2 in a UW operating room.
Michelle’s recovery will take time. The first month is considered critical, as her body adjusts to the new liver and anti-rejection drugs, the Moultons said before the transplant. It could take up to a year to get back to normal.
Insurance plans create a financial mess for Moultons
Other than indulging in a new bedspread recently, Michelle Moulton can’t remember the last time she bought herself something. Medical bills have run so high that she feels guilty spending money on anything else.
“I think of all the things we could’ve done with the money,” Michelle said from her hospital bed Aug. 25, a few days before her transplant.
The Moultons are an extreme example of the complexities of the American health insurance system, according to Will Pittz, executive director of Washington Community Action Network, a health-insurance advocacy group.
Like others, though, they have been denied coverage or put on six-month to one-year waitlists for their current plans due to her pre-existing condition.
“Some of the challenges she is facing, and has faced, would be different if this had happened after health care reform,” Pittz said. “The reality is, insurance should create a shared risk and that is not how it has worked.”
The financial stress of paying for liver failure and the transplant she just received is taking its toll on the Moultons. They have paid or owe roughly $300,000 out-of-pocket to treat Michelle’s nearly seven-year-long battle with liver failure. That’s in addition to the $2,500 per month the Moultons pay for three health-insurance plans, said Marion Moulton, Michelle’s husband.
Now that she’s received a transplant, the surgery and associated costs will tack on between $500,000 and $700,000.
“We’re always so behind,” Michelle said. “Not in payments but … by the time a bill goes through, I’m sick again.”
On the up side, the transplant should reduce the number of times she’ll need to visit the emergency room.
When she got really sick, Marion or Amber, their 17-year-old daughter, would rush Michelle to Overlake Hospital Medical Center, which, according to a June 24 bill, cost $8,014.09 and included the ER service ($3,125), one night room and board ($1,588), lab fees ($536.60), an ultrasound ($460), a chest X-Ray ($301) and a blood storage and procurement fee ($674), among other things.
“Each time we’re there, different things are done,” Michelle said after a recent blood transfusion at Overlake. “This one’s going to be higher.”
It’s not just expensive visits to the ER that cost a lot. Since being listed first for a transplant at the UW, Michelle visited various specialists a couple of times per week.
Michelle was regularly tested, scanned and examined by a multitude of “ologists,” who worked to compile a score to determine whether her body is sick enough, yet fit enough to get the transplant.
“Literally every part of my body has been CAT-scanned, MRIed …,” she said.
She took one to two trips to the emergency room per month, she and Marion said. Sometimes she stayed, with an IV hooked in and doctors in and out every 15 minutes to an hour to check her vitals.
“Now that we’re closer, they want to monitor her once a week,” Marion said about a week before the Sept. 2 transplant.
The Moultons said they will need all three of their plans to afford the transplant. One pays for this test, while another pays for part of the transplant and the other might pay for something else — it’s hard to know, Marion said. No single plan they pay into will cover the entire procedure.
“I think we need all three to make it work,” he said.
Get involved
For more information, or to make a donation to help cover Michelle Moulton’s medical expenses, visit www.FriendsofMichelle.com.
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com.
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