Thursday, July 17, 2003

Roanoke kid with Crohn's goes for blood stem cell transplant

Today's Roanoke Times has this story about Jordan Fifer, age 13, who is about to travel to Chicago for an experimental Crohn's disease treatment involving a stem-cell transplant (using his own stem cells, not the controversial kind). The young man has a website, and a fund for his medical bills (and other necessaries), jordanfiferfund.org. Good luck to you, Jordan.

There are almost a million people with Crohn's disease in the United States and I am one of them. Occasionally, I come across reported cases involving persons with Crohn's who are either claiming disability or discrimination. In one such case, the Sixth Circuit noted:

"Even if Kerwin were, as Ada Kerwin suggests, a lazy, financially unsuccessful trial attorney before his diagnosis, he nevertheless would be entitled to recovery under the Policy if Crohn's disease left him unable to perform the functions of a trial attorney."

Kerwin v. Paul Revere Life Ins. Co., 6 Fed. Appx. 233, 239 n.3, 2001 WL 223856, 4 n.3 (6th Cir. 2001). (And no, I did not file an amicus brief in the case.)

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