Having worked with (for) insurance companies for decades:

[PCIntern]

let me just say that my theory which belongs to me and is mine too is that:

Cigna denied coverage, found out that the poor child was going to expire no matter what was done (from an inside source, who may not have realized what he/she was saying), and THEN approved the operation for all of the obvious reasons.

If you think that this type of action is beneath anyone's moral code, think again...

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. So without the media attention, they never would have approved?

And why did the nurses in CA work so hard for this girl? If there was really no hope she would survive, why did they push for the transplant so hard?

[trashcanistanista]

2. The Ca Nurse Assoc.

has been fighting for Universal Single Payer health care for a while. There has been a bill in our legislature that does just that that was passed twice, but vetoed by Arnold. They probably were well aware of the insurance co's. tactics as they see this all the time. They went after Cigna in an attempt to save the girl via bad publicity which almost worked. There is no way of knowing whether or not the transplant would have worked permanently, even in a farly healthy person, there is a risk, but since doctors agreed to perform it, and recommended it, it is a viable medical treatment in a life or death situation. The CNA is well organized and outspoken and did what they had to do, which is advocate for patients. It was not a case of "there was no hope". It was a case of she had overcome so much that she would most likely survive the transplant and she could remain alive.

[Fovea]

3. There could be a couple practical reasons

But having watch a goodly number of patients die from multiple organ failure, you see windows of opportunity closing as the numbers worsen, and the damage accumulates.

What may have seemed doable at teh beginning of the protest may simply have slipped out of their grasp with the increasing of entropy.

Or they may have had lessor hope in the beginning, but saw one beautiful child or loving parent experience the same impediments to treatment and decided they had reached the rubicon.

The natural history of Mx system failure is idiosyncratic due to differences in causative mechanism and patient constitution.

[PCIntern]

4. I'll restate for the record:

they were taking a lot of heat and they knew exactly what was going on...so they approved it hoping that it would mitigate the coming disaster.

Only time will tell if they made a miscalculation...