In an ideal world, young people facing cancer diagnoses would unrelentingly and unanimously receive the medical care that would not only free them of cancer but give them the right to a happy and healthy life. This, however, isn’t always the case.
Insurance providers who prioritize their own bottom lines over young people’s recoveries can prove as detrimental to these young people’s health as a cancer diagnosis. In Dimitri Vallejo’s case, insurance providers’ decisions regarding his care permanently caused damage to his heart and have changed the way he will interact with his health for years to come.
Vallejo’s clash with leukemia and the following fight with left ventricular tachycardia is not, however, a tragedy at heart. In the essay he submitted to Pilzer Klein, P.C., Vallejo elaborates on the way he’s transformed his contentious relationship with insurance providers into actionable advocacy for people in similar positions.
Pilzer Klein, P.C. is proud to award Dimitri Vallejo $2,500 in financial support through its Fighting Cancer Scholarship.
Vallejo’s Medical Journey
Vallejo’s scholarship essay speaks to both the intensity of his medical journey and his skill as a writer. He begins his essay as follows: “‘Bend your knees, raise your arms, lift your head’ —casual orders I internalized as part of my daily MRI. Today, I could not hear them.”
His first paragraph goes into detail about the terror of heart failure in the wake of dangerous cancer treatments. Moreover, Vallejo immediately integrates this beat-by-beat recitation of a terrifying moment with the theme of his essay: insurance providers failed him, and now he has to contend with the consequences of their actions – but he’s going to fight back.
Cancer, as it turns out, was only the start of Vallejo’s medical journey. Since an unnecessarily dangerous chemotherapy treatment eradicated Vallejo’s cancer, he’s had to endure “countless echocardiograms, two heart surgeries, and years of heart failure medication.” The chemotherapy that destroyed his cancer also destroyed his heart – but it didn’t have to.
Vallejo notes that his insurance provider had the option to recommend and fund a preferred chemotherapy treatment that wouldn’t have been as dangerous for Vallejo’s heart. Instead, the company made a healthcare decision in Vallejo’s stead, prioritizing its financial standing over Vallejo’s heart health.
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Lessons from a Battle Against Insurance Providers
Vallejo lived through his cancer diagnosis to pursue higher education, albeit at a continued cost. While majoring in History and Political Science with a pre-law focus on International Law, he had to contend with a constant sense of financial urgency. The heart medication that kept him alive, Entresto, cost two thousand dollars per month.
Without adequate medical insurance, Vallejo could not afford the medication that would allow him to complete his degree. As such, he took on a corporate role with benefits to ensure that he always had the financial support he needed to keep living. All the while, he had to wrestle with the fact that his income dictated his right to live.
Vallejo’s Pursuit of Justice
Vallejo found a path toward a fairer future with help from Christopher Santas, a mentor through Columbia Law School’s Athena Pre-Law Mentorship Program. In his essay, Vallejo notes that Santas introduced him to Restorative Justice. Vallejo used this introduction to further his pursuit of a career as a public interest attorney as well as his interest in judicial mediation.
As a matter of fact, Vallejo completed a mediation certification as “the youngest trainee at the New York Peace Institute.” He then used the skills he’d learned to help clients throughout New York resolve their differences with one another. He’s additionally led mediation workshops to educate in-need parties on the value of conflict resolution.
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Looking Toward the Future as a Public Interest Attorney
At present, Vallejo attends the University of Oklahoma and is set to graduate in June 2026. He intends to pursue a career in the legal field, ideally defending the rights of parties contending with unwieldy insurance policies and the healthcare industries. His other areas of interest include data privacy and international law.
Vallejo intends to remain open-minded about the career opportunities available to him in the legal field, as he primarily intends to make a difference in the lives of those people he might help.
“Facing death gave me a choice,” he says in his scholarship essay. “Either yield to adversity or reframe my affliction as an opportunity. I choose the latter: to interpret my condition as a lens for seeing a broken system and using my unique perspective to amplify those who need a voice. I will not ignore my social responsibility to help rectify unjust third options.”
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Pilzer Klein, P.C. Will Continue to Support the Next Generation’s Academic Dreams
Vallejo deserved to receive his “third option” treatment – care that would have preserved his heart health while also eradicating his cancer. Unfortunately, today’s insurance providers can and do continue to prioritize their bottom lines over their clients’ right to care.
It is in light of that injustice as well as Vallejo’s Herculean legal and social efforts that Pilzer Klein, P.C. proudly awards him the 2023 Fighting Cancer Scholarship. The team applauds Vallejo’s commitment to, in his words, “impartial humanitarianism and [the banishment of] unnecessary suffering” and looks forward to seeing his accomplishments in the years to come.
Students interested in applying for Pilzer Klein, P.C.’s Fighting Cancer Scholarship ahead of the 2024/2025 academic year can visit the scholarship’s terms and conditions pageto learn more about its eligibility requirements. Pilzer Klein, P.C. cannot answer phone calls, emails, or other forms of communication about the scholarship at this time.
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