A Mercer County mother created “Kinsley’s’ Bill” to help her daughter and other children in New Jersey who have been diagnosed with complex medical needs.

Six-year-old Kinsley can’t walk or eat on her own, but her mother Patricia Geurds says that she is the stronger girl she’s ever met.

“She’s had over 40 surgeries, procedures…and yet she just smiles and laughs and just goes with it,” Geurds says.

But despite spending a third of her life in the hospital, Kinsley remains undiagnosed. And because of Kinsley’s complex medical needs, Geurds often has trouble getting the items her daughter needs approved by her insurance company.

“Kinsley has been denied medications, procedures, nursing care…It took almost a year to get an MRI of her brain,” says Geurds

In 2018, by her daughter's side in a Delaware hospital, Geurds wrote "Kinsley's Bill" to make sure insurance companies won't stand in the way of desperately-needed medical care for children with complex medical needs. The bill is now sponsored by Assemblyman Anthony Verrelli.

"Kinsley's Bill will allow the doctors who attend to the child make the final decision without it being overridden by insurance companies” Geurds says. "It's going to give the patients…the care that they absolutely deserve and need and bring some peace of mind to the families taking care of these children."

Geurds’ Change.org petition in support of the bill has nearly 1,300 signatures.

“When you see an opportunity to make it better, not just for your little girl, but for all those other children, it almost like, it compels you,” she says.

Geurds hopes to introduce the legislation in front of a state assembly committee soon.

Anyone who wishes to learn more about the bill can send Geurds an email.