Amelia Rivera is a three-year-old girl who desperately needs a kidney to survive.  However, unlike most patients, she was denied even the chance to try and find a matching kidney. Finding a donor is not an easy job. There are always more patients waiting for a kidney than there are willing and able donors. But there is hope. After a few tests needed to find a match are done, a kidney patient is placed on a waiting list. The wait can be long and it depends or urgency, age, and other medical problems. If a willing stranger happens to match that patient, a donation is possible. If the stranger happens to also match another patient who is in more urgent need of a transplant, or higher on the list, the patient must wait for a different donor. Kidneys can also come from deceased donors.  Even while on the list the patient is encouraged to try and find a donor on his own as this can sometimes shorten the wait time.  

Many patients in need of a kidney never actually find a donor even though they are on a list. However, they still have the security that, while on the list, there are people out there who are trying to help them find a match. Amelia Rivera and her family are on their own in this battle.

The child was born with a syndrome named Wolf-Hirschhorn. This disorder is very complex and can cause both physical and mental impairments. The main and most common features of the disorders are delayed growth and development, intellectual disability, seizures, and characteristic facial appearance.

Amelia’s mom has recently attracted a lot of attention when she said that her child’s doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia told her that Amelia would not be placed on a transplant list because she is “mentally retarded”.  The doctor continued by saying that the child’s condition might be aggravated by the medications required for the transplant. The worst is yet the come. Upon hearing this, the mother stated that members of her family as well as herself would be willing to donate. In this case the girl would bypass the waiting list completely. Still, the doctor allegedly said Amelia still would not be eligible for a transplant because of her mental delays and quality of life.  Now here comes the question on everybody’s mind… Did the doctor just say that mentally impaired children are not worth saving? Because that is what it sounds like to me. Amelia needs the transplant within a year or she will die. If she lives she will still be impaired, true. But she will be alive. Does this mean that some people think that it is better to be dead than mentally impaired? If someone in her family was truly a match, why stop them from donating? I wasn’t even aware that doctors can stop a possible donation. Should that kidney be given to someone more “worthy”? Who decides who is more worthy? And what qualities are taken into consideration? Plus, there was no evidence at the time that the matched donor matched anybody else on a list or that they were willing to donate to someone outside the family.

On its Facebook page, an official from the Hospital wrote “We feel and understand your frustration, but we are unable to comment publicly on individual cases”. However, some news reporters claim the hospital is reviewing the case and will conduct several meetings with the family and their transplant team.