
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 30, 1994                   TAG: 9403300160
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

WERT LEAVES FOR N.Y. TO PREPARE FOR SURGERY

Kelly Wert, the aspiring teacher with a rare movement disorder, will leave for New York City today with her parents in preparation for brain surgery next week.

Wert's operation is scheduled for Monday at New York University Medical Center, according to family spokeswoman Lenore Jackson. She will consult with her surgeon and undergo tests before then.

Wert is expected to be hospitalized for at least one week after surgery. She is scheduled to return to her Christiansburg home by April 13, Jackson said.

Wert was the subject of several news articles and a fund-raising drive earlier this year after the Illinois-based Golden Rule Insurance Co. denied coverage of the brain surgery because it considered the movement disorder a pre-existing condition. She'd had the problem since age 13, but it worsened in the late fall.

Wert obtained a short-term health insurance policy with Golden Rule after leaving her family's policy with Travelers Insurance Co. when she graduated from the College of William and Mary last spring.

Family friends raised more than $46,000 in January and February to pay for the operation, then estimated to cost $44,000 or more.

The Werts learned in mid-February that Travelers had decided to cover Kelly again after earlier denying coverage. Travelers now will cover the bulk of Wert's medical costs.

The money raised from donors remains in two trust accounts with First National Bank of Christiansburg, meaning nothing can be disbursed without approval from the bank president or another senior officer, Jackson said. She used money from one of the funds to pay for the Werts' airline tickets and lodging in New York.

Jackson said she wanted to wait until Kelly Wert had recovered to decide what to do with the fund-raising surplus. "I guess it's a little premature to be planning any of those things," she said. Though it is still in the talking stage, fund administrators will probably give contributors a chance to ask for their money back, Jackson said.

by CNB