Source ABC News NYC
Anthony Di Laura, 35, of Throggs Neck in New York City’s borough of the Bronx, has a rare disease called Pseudomyxoma Peritonei, which is attacking his abdominal organs. He was diagnosed in August 2020, just a few months after finding out that he and his wife, Jackie Cucullo, were going to have their first child.
Di Laura underwent three surgeries to try to remove the diseased tissue, but it was found to be cancerous and he began seven months of chemotherapy. Around the same time, Cucullo became pregnant with the couple’s second child. He is in abdominal pain 24/7 and has to use tubes for nutrition and draining a continual building of fluid.
Neither the surgeries nor the chemotherapy was successful in combating the disease and cancer. Doctors recently told Di Laura his best option may be hospice.
Cucullo heard about a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio who had recently performed the America’s first multi-organ transplant on a Minnesota man dying from the same disease. The procedure involved removing the man’s diseased abdominal organs and replacing them with healthy ones. Di Laura traveled to the Cleveland Clinic last spring and underwent more than two dozen tests to see if he would be eligible for the same procedure.
In Di Laura’s case, the doctor would remove his stomach, large intestine, small intestine, and spleen and replace them with healthy organs. While still in Ohio, the clinic informed Di Laura he had been approved for the surgery. “It was the biggest sigh of relief,” he said. But shortly thereafter, Di Laura’s insurance, Empire BlueCross BlueShield, denied the procedure citing it as “investigational.”
Di Laura appealed the decision — it was denied three times in total, despite the fact that the surgeon at Cleveland Clinic wrote to Empire to express his belief that the surgery was medically necessary to save Di Laura’s life. Empire wrote in their denial letters to Di Laura that “medical studies do not show that this surgery is safe or will improve your short or long-term health if there has been this type of spread…(M)edical studies do not show that this surgery is safe or will improve your short or long-term health.”
The only recourse Di Laura had left was to file an emergency appeal with the New York State Department of Financial Services. But last week Empire reversed their decision.
“Together with Mr. Di Laura’s medical team, our clinical team made the decision to cover (his) procedure with the surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic,” an Empire statement said. “The transplant surgeon provided additional information to demonstrate this procedure has shown early promise in case reports from the UK, and could be the only option left that may improve health outcomes for Mr. Di Laura. We will continue to support him and his family as we move forward.”
The family has a GoFundMe site for coverage of potential additional medical and non-medical expenses.