Maroon

              The Loyola MAROON Volume 70 No. 18 Loyola University New Orleans, Louisiana 70118 February 28,1992 Rachel: By Michael Wilson Editor in Chief She doesn't know what a doctor is, but screams at the sight of a white coat. And she's seen a lot of white coats — practically grown up with them. She also has no idea that she's become a public figure of sorts these last couple of weeks, singlehandedly distracting an entire city during its most festive time of year. In the season known for being carefree, Rachel White has made New Orleans care. The 15-month-oldgirl was diagnosed shortly after birth with extra hepatic biliary atresia — a disease that afflicts one child in 15,000 a year, bringing with it its deadly kin, cholangitis. In layman's terms, the bileducts of her liver didnot fuse properly and had to be connected months ago to her small intestine — a procedure which opens up the liver to bacterial infections. But until recently, you wouldn't know it to look at her. "She's never looked like a liver baby," Rachel's mother, Micro-Center Operations Manager Mary White, explained. White describes her daughter as "fearless, a little tank," a cheerful kid who doesn't even know she's sick. But in the past few months, the disease battling Rachel's liver has made itself known on the outside. The whites of her eyes are turning a pale green, and her skin is an unnatural yellow. Just below the grape-sized catheter application under the soft skin of her chest lies a bloated, hard belly. There, under the long scar from six previous microsurgeries, you can actually make out the shape of her inflamed liver and spleen with your hand. Her bloodclots slowly, and she bruises easily. New Orleans rallies to save a child's life Buttons and snaps on her clothes leave blackand-blue marks. None of this is apparent in the photographs of Rachel hung all over campus, circulated and posted through the fundraising efforts of the university community. Led byCampusMinistry, the fight to raise at least $30,000 for the procurement of a healthy liver drafted everyone from campus fraternities and sororities to Domino's pizza and the Kiwanis Club. Without the transplant, Rachel's doctors give her about 10 months to live. The city-wide groups fight to raise the cash because, due to contractual snafus still not completely untangled, Mary White's insurance won't cover the entire transplant process —just the actual $200,000 operation. It all began late last semester, when Loyola switched health plans for its employees due to exorbitant increases in premiums. To replace the three health plans available at the time, the University Fringe Benefits Committee chose the Aetna/ Partners Point-of-Serviceplan, which seemed to be just as good as the old ones, but cheaper. With their one-year-old daughter in and out of the Ochsner Alton Medical Foundation's pediatric ward and a liver transplant looking certain, the Whites followed this insurance renewal process very closely. At a Nov. 14 town meeting. Dr. Julian Wasserman, English professor and Benefits Committee member, stood up before approximately 200 faculty and staff members and explained the switch. He assured his listeners that a family needing a liver transplant, for example, would pay only a maximum of $ 1,500 Throw me somethin' — A member of the Knights of Babylon gets ready to toss coveted long beads to parade-goers Wednesday night /Photo by Greer Gattuso Baby Rachel— Rachel White smiles, unaware that she has a life-threatening disease. Over $30,000 has been raised for Rachel's much-needed liver transplant. /Photo by Kim Foote Rising cost of books and low budget break Library's bank By Jos£ Patino Staff writer With three months remaining until the end of the spring semester, the Library Collection Development Department has no funds remaining in its ordering budget The budget allows professors to request books and update the library with contemporary works. Richard Snow, collection development librarian, said the lack of money is due to the cost of books, which have gone up 6 percent, and to the subject allocations budget of $65,590, which is not sufficient. Snow also said the department has been "conservative" and "selective" in purchasing books. But the library needs to buy a large quantity of books to remain updated in its selection. Mary Lee Sweat, university librarian, said, there is "not enough money to buy the books faculty and students are requesting." The collections department will not be able to order books that professors request until Aug. 1 when the budget is restored. Not being able to order books will cause "holes in thecollection," Snow said. "We will be behind when we get the new budget," and "we will have to buy books (requested) at this time with next year's budget." Dr. Donald Hauber, associate professor of biological sciences and member of the university library committee, said "this happens about every See Rachel / page S See Library/ page 6 yuħnjdfnh v