100-Plus Pounds Stand in Way of Freed Sister’s Kidney Transplant; Lawyer Blames Incarceration
Two sisters freed from prison provided one gives the other a kidney won’t be able to have the transplant surgery right away because both are overweight.
Jamie Scott tells CNN that she can’t have the needed surgery until she loses 110 pounds. Her lawyer, Chokwe Lumumba, tells WAPT.com that Jamie must lose 100 pounds and her sister, Gladys, 60 pounds. Gladys will also have to give up cigarettes.
“I’ve cut out all fried foods,” Jamie Scott says in an ABC News interview. “I want to live.”
Lumumba says the sisters wouldn’t be overweight if they hadn’t been in prison, the WAPT.com story says.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour released the women from prison last month, provided they have the kidney transplant within one year. He said the release will save the state the costs of dialysis. It’s still not known if Gladys is a compatible donor.
The women had spent 16 years in jail for an $11 armed robbery.
