Marlene was employed at a plasma donation center in the 1980’s.  During this work, she sustained a couple of needle stick injuries for which she was subsequently screened for HIV and found to be negative. In 2010, her teenage son became ill with pancreatitis for which he had to be hospitalized. During the hospitalization, he was tested and diagnosed with Hepatitis C.  Marlene was then tested and found that she had contracted Hepatitis C, presumably from the needle sticks.  Soon after her son’s pancreatitis, Marlene became very ill as well.  She had to leave work and was eventually hospitalized in 2013 at OHSU where she had to undergo a liver transplant.  Only one month later, her son became very ill once more and was hospitalized in the intensive care unit at OHSU along with her.  It was determined that he also required a liver transplant.  Both mother and son are the successful recipients of donor livers and have been able to go back to college. 

Marlene would not have been able to obtain insurance coverage without the ACA and says today that without the ACA, she and her son would be dead.  They both continue to require very expensive post-transplant medications that are paid for by their Marketplace plans. If the ACA is repealed, she does not know how they will possibly be able to be covered with their conditions or, if they can get covered, how they will ever be able to afford it.