Sometimes, they refer patients to other hospitals that accept indigent patients for transplant, and they inform all patients that St. Luke's will not deny emergency care. But until the patient makes the deposit, no transplant. Patients like Rickey Jendry know the system and how it works. But they don't understand. There's a whole process you have to go through.
Transplants are expensive.
There is some question as to whether you can actually offer everyone the latest technology. But when someone has a heart transplant, they can go back to work and have a relatively normal, healthy life. In a way, that's much more cost- effective than treating them for a lifelong heart illness. Dr. Pat Wood, who oversees Houston's liver transplant programs, said the same is true for his patients. A dead patient is a cheap patient.