Mother of Misdiagnosed Cancer Patient Discusses Struggle to Make Doctors Accountable for Daughter's Death

Hillarie Levy Works to Gain Sponsorship of Legislation to Protect a Patient’s Dying Wishes.

Robyn Libitsky in the prime of her life. To learn more about Robin, visit: robynlibitsky.kaiserpapers.org

(LOS ANGELES) - Robyn Libitsky was in the prime of her life. She worked for a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and had gained acceptance to law school. She was a vibrant young woman with a full life ahead of her when she reported to a Kaiser Permanente hospital with pain on the left side of her back.

Although she had Ewing’s Sarcoma, Robyn was misdiagnosed and treated for back pain for five months. Robyn reported to a Kaiser hospital fourteen times with a tumor protruding from her back.

Due to the late diagnosis, Robyn’s tumor was so large that her cancer could not be cured. Since Robyn’s death, her mother Hillarie Levy has waged a campaign to make her doctors accountable for her daughter’s death.

American Dawn welcomes special guest Hillarie Levy to the Wednesday, December 16, 2009 broadcast. Hillarie utilized the Kaiser Permanente member services complaint system to issue complaints of lack of care yet her documented concerns did not move Kaiser Permanente to provide the care Robyn needed.

While facing death in the hospital, a co-worker and a medical professional obtained control of Robyn’s estate and presented a medical directive to Kaiser attempting to take control of Robyn’s medical decisions.

Hillarie will discuss with host Vickie Travis her plans for future legislation to protect patients from being taken advantage of financially and otherwise during their most vulnerable moments.

American Dawn can be heard on HTH radio at hthradio.net on Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m. PT/4:00 p.m. ET.

Host Vickie Travis is a leading HMO reform advocate who has dedicated her time following her father’s tragic death to working to help educate others on how to safely navigate through the HMO system.

American Dawn is one of several outreach advocacy projects of The Managed Care Reform Council.