The hashtags #ScrewAetna and #CaraPressman were shared across Twitter. In response, Cara had this message: “Considering they’re denying me getting surgery and stopping this thing that’s wrong with my brain, I would probably just say, ‘screw you.’ “įrom there, the story took off. Three weeks later, she says she's adjusting well: "It kind of feels like it's a little bit of a dream, but I also know it's real." Victor J. When first approached for comment by CNN late last year, the insurance giant stood by its denial.Ĭara underwent the laser ablation surgery on July 25. “Clinical studies have not proven that this procedures effective for treatment of the member’s condition,” Aetna said. In denying her coverage, Aetna said it considered laser ablation surgery “experimental and investigational for the treatment of epilepsy because the effectiveness of this approach has not been established.” Yet the nation’s third-largest insurance company overruled her treating physicians. Neurosurgeons believe it to be more precise and less invasive than traditional open brain surgery, in which a two-inch hole is cut in the skull or, in some cases, the entire skull cap is removed. It’s cutting-edge work, performed through an eighth-inch hole in the skull. Her doctors last year recommended Cara for laser ablation surgery, a minimally invasive procedure in which a thin laser is used to heat and destroy lesions in the brain where the seizures originate. She had seizures on the soccer field, during softball games, on stage during plays, in the classroom. She’d zone out anywhere from 20 seconds to two minutes, typically still aware of what was going on around her. Blue for CNNĮach time they struck, her body would grow cold and shake. Cara has suffered from a seizure disorder most of her life. It’s a moment the family thought might never come.Ĭara’s mother became a fierce champion for her youngest daughter, determined that Cara would get the surgery her doctors believed could stop her seizures.Ī motivational note rests on the family refrigerator. “She’s been so happy since the operation,” he says. Her father, Rob, says it’s “like a unicorn coming down.” “That’s what’s important in life – miracles, right?” her mother, Julie Pressman, says, pointing to the sky. It’s as if Mother Nature has joined the party: A rainbow stretches from the Hudson River high into the heavens.Ĭara launches her head back and strikes an array of poses as people take photos. Then someone shouts, and the dance floor clears. This Saturday evening, amid the cheers of her closest friends, Cara radiates on stage beneath strings of white flashing lights. Her story, first told by CNN in December, triggered a massive uproar, and Aetna eventually approved the procedure. Her two words for Aetna – “screw you” – expressed the anger she felt at being denied a minimally invasive brain surgery that promised to end her seizures. Cara became a viral sensation months ago after the teen with a seizure disorder delivered a blunt message to her insurer.
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