Mary Cutter, whose 24-year-old son Christian died suddenly in 2012, has offered to pay for anti-rejection drugs for the recipient of his heart after her insurance coverage changed. Payton Herres, now 25, received Christian's heart at age 11 and has relied on the drug everolimus to prevent rejection. In February, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield deemed the drug 'no longer medically necessary,' making it unaffordable for Herres, who earns $35,000 a year.
Cutter, 65, from Cincinnati, said in an interview with The Independent: 'I'll do whatever I can to keep hers and my son's heart going.' She described Christian as a funny, smart 'amazing kid' who was in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at the University of Cincinnati. Cutter also lost her husband and brother in the years since Christian's death.
Herres, from Dayton, Ohio, has Ebstein's anomaly, a rare congenital heart disease. She has been on a combination of medications since her transplant at Cincinnati Children's Hospital 13 years ago. Everolimus, taken with cyclosporine, had worked well since 2013, but is only FDA-approved for liver and kidney transplants, not heart transplants.
Herres has started a petition calling for the FDA and drug manufacturer Novartis to review evidence for everolimus in heart transplant patients. After public attention, Anthem reversed its decision in mid-September, but Herres continues to campaign for broader access. Cutter said if anything happened to her son's heart, 'it would be like living the whole thing over again.'
