‘This is not acceptable’: Mother fights for access to life-saving medication for daughter
By Pepper Purpura
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ANKENY, Iowa (KCCI) — An Ankeny mother is pushing lawmakers to resolve a shortage of her daughter’s life-saving cancer medication after struggling to access the essential drug to her daughter’s treatment plan.
Natalie Duff is a typical toddler, emotional, giggly, interested in exploring everything she can wrap her tiny fingers around and obsessed with watching her favorite television character, Elmo. Unlike most 2-and-a-half-year-olds, she isn’t hitting the milestones her pediatrician sets, she hasn’t started walking and her speech is limited, because Natalie has a rare form of brain cancer.
Doctors have tried removing her tumors through surgery, but cancer cells keep coming back, leading her parents to change treatment plans. On Monday, Natalie will start chemotherapy.
But for the treatment to work as effectively as possible, she also needs to take medications. Tuesday, Natalie’s mother Lara Duff found out one of those medications isn’t available at any nearby hospitals.
“We didn’t know this until yesterday, when we got an email from her oncologist saying Blank Children’s Hospital doesn’t have any carboplatin, so you’ll have to come to Iowa City until further notice,” Lara Duff said.
Other hospitals are also struggling to find the cancer drug because of a nationwide shortage.
Lara Duff is planning to travel four hours every week for the next 15 months to get the treatment.
“This is the only option,” Lara Duff said. “The other option is don’t do anything and that’s deadly, that’s not an option.”
Though she can access it now, she’s worried the hospital may run out before her daughter’s treatment is complete. So, she is pushing leaders to find solutions.
“I walked into Sen. Earnst and Grassley’s office and just bawled my eyes out saying this is not acceptable,” Lara Duff said. “They (solved the shortage) with baby formula. I would think that a life-saving cancer drug is just as high a priority.”
Lara Duff is writing letters and organizing petitions she plans on presenting to state leaders, hoping they can push for a solution to the shortage.
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