Years into his quest for a kidney, an L.A. patient is still in ‘the Twilight Zone’

Roland Coleman has spent two years trying to get on waitlist for a kidney transplant. One year after Coleman went to Keck’s Los Angeles campus for an orientation on its kidney transplant program, a Keck coordinator assured him in an email that “the team is reviewing your case.” Then in August — more than a year and a half after his Keck orientation — Coleman was told that his evaluation was closed. In a letter, Keck told Coleman he was too “high risk” to be a transplant candidate at that time, but said it might reconsider him if he took some additional steps. “Medical treatment delayed is medical treatment denied.” Keck said every patient referred there for a kidney transplant is assigned a coordinator who communicates with them about their progress, but by last fall, Coleman said he wasn’t sure who his coordinator was because the program had endured so much turnover. “I’m in a ‘Twilight Zone’ where I don’t know who’s going to do what,” he said, “or when.” After The Times reached out to UnitedHealthcare and Optum about their rules, Coleman said he got a phone call from Optum saying he could be evaluated by both UCLA and Keck.