Anorexic woman is given choice to seek out-of-state medical treatment or die

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A Georgia woman who weighs 58 pounds was told she had two choices — either seek out-of-state treatment for anorexia or die of the disorder.

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Katrina Howard, 25, of Americus, was receiving treatment at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, but doctors were not sure what more they could do to save the woman from the deadly disorder.

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“She’s not out of the woods yet,” Dr. Paul Robinson, a pediatrician at the hospital told The Miami Herald. He said Howard’s pancreas “has shown worrisome signs of stress.” Howard, who is 4-ft., 11-in., weighs just 58 percent of what is healthy for her petite frame, which is ideally just under 100 pounds.

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“She is very sick,” Robinson said. “She has been very sick. We are praying that we can get her pulled out, but she is a very sick person.”

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Howard was insured by Georgia Medicaid, a program for the underprivileged that was funded by both the state and federal government. The insurance program allegedly views the intensive treatment program Howard needs for her anorexia as a “luxury that taxpayers should not be forced to endure,”

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Clinic treatment for patients suffering from eating disorders can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and Medicaid normally pays only a fragment of that.

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“The majority of deaths are either from starvation or suicide,” the doctor added. “They get so tired or beaten down by those horrible thoughts: ‘I’m bad. I’m ugly. I’m stupid. I’m not good.’ They get tired, they give up the ghost and they kill themselves. It’s a horrendous disease.”

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