Florida’s Version of TLC Smooths Way for Expensive Transplants in Ailing Children

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. —  After doctors told Bill Smith there was a liver in Chicago small enough for his 3-month-old son, an air ambulance agent told him the fare from Miami was about $7,000--in cash, up front.

Smith, a 28-year-old carpet cleaning store manager, didn’t have the money, and his insurance company refused to pay for the trip. The desperate father promised to make payments every 15 days even though he had no idea how he would do so.

Then the liver in Chicago turned out to be diseased.

Flown Courtesy of Fund

But a few weeks later, Zachary Thomas Smith underwent a successful liver transplant operation in Pittsburgh, where he and his mother had flown, courtesy of the Governor’s Transplant Lifeline for Children fund.

The TLC fund, set up almost a year ago, is a state-administered fund of private donations.

The largest single donation has come from the San Francisco 49ers football team--$25,000.

Two weeks before its first anniversary, the fund’s balance had passed $204,000, said Jayne Parker, transplant program coordinator with the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.

Last year by mid-November, six Florida children besides Zachary had undergone liver transplants, 15 had bone marrow transplants and one had received a heart transplant.

Only Family to Need Help

But only one family other than the Smiths needed help from the TLC fund, although Parker is negotiating two other cases with families and insurance companies.

So far, the fund has spent some $7,000.

The Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services has negotiated a $130,000 rate for liver and heart transplants in Florida and is still working on a rate for bone marrow transplants, which generally are less expensive. But if a Florida transplant center says a child should go out of state, the fund would pay for that operation, Parker said.

No human has ever survived longer than 4 1/2 months after an intestine transplant.

The only transplant approved for the TLC fund besides liver, heart and bone marrow is kidney, which is completely covered by Medicare, Parker said.

Fund-raising for TLC began last February with a $500-a-ticket reception at the governor’s mansion that raised more than $70,000, according to B.J. West, a volunteer services coordinator with HRS in Orlando.