Penn Medicine Breaks Silence on Heart Transplant Denial for Autistic Patient

Penn Medicine is part of the Hospital
of the University of Pennsylvania.

Much of the coverage devoted to Paul Corby’s quest to get a heart transplant has focused on the cardiac and transplant side of things. But Paul, of Pottsville, PA hasn’t been denied placement on the heart transplant list for cardiac reasons.
Paul has been denied placement on the heart transplant list, at least in part, because he has autism.
Paul, who has a rare congenital heart disorder called Left Ventricular Noncompaction (LVN), has had three mini-strokes already. He’s 23 years old. His father died of a stroke, caused by the same disease, at age 27.  Penn Medicine at Radnor, part of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, denied Paul placement on the heart transplant list in part because Paul is autistic.
A letter from a Penn Medicine transplant doctor to Paul’s mother, Karen Corby, reads, “I have recommended against a transplant given his psychiatric issues, autism, the complexity of the process, multiple procedures and the unknown and unpredictable effect of steroids on behavior."