Cancer-stricken children urge Bernie Sanders to back life-saving pediatric healthcare bill

"There is something currently in my lung, and there's a 50-50 chance that it's cancer," Knudsen, a California native and college student, told the newspaper. "I'm willing to bleed. I'm willing to lose limbs. I'm willing to lose organs. I'm willing to do anything just to survive."

The bipartisan bill, named after Knudsen's friend, a fellow osteosarcoma patient who died late last year at 16, would allow pediatric cancer patients to participate in clinical trials and to ensure them access to key treatments.

The legislation passed unanimously in the House. However, when it reached the Senate, Sanders, who has repeatedly called for better health care, objected. He demanded other stipulations be attached, such as funding of other efforts, such as community health centers, the Post said. 

At the time of the bill's failure in December, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., accused Sanders of playing politics with children's lives before calling him a real-life Grinch.

"Everything their senator from Vermont just talked about was political," said Mullin, who brought the bill to the Senate floor. "I'm talking about giving kids a chance to live an extra day or a lifetime. This has nothing to do with politics. This has to do with kids."

"The Grinch is stealing kids' lives," he added. "And he's stealing hope from the families."

Nancy Goodman, executive director of Kids v Cancer, told the Post the bill's failure to pass is an example of Washington's crippling dysfunction. 

"The bill would ensure the most innovative, promising pediatric cancer clinical studies are conducted, and it would incentivize companies to develop novel, potentially curative drugs for these kids," she said. 

Goodman and her husband, former U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, lost their 10-year-old son, Jacob, in 2009 to medulloblastoma.

Other cancer patients feel the same as Knudsen. 

"The sooner we pass acts like this, the more lives we save," Knudsen said. "How many children have died from cancer? How many of those were the next Albert Einstein that never made it? These kids could solve the world's problems."