Her insurance company shark won't give her a new arm.
A Virginia mother of three who lost most of her left arm in a shark attack in June 2024 received payment for the $73,000 myoelectric prosthetic hand she was told she would receive on Christmas Eve in October. I recently learned that the health insurance company, Cigna Healthcare, has refused my request. .
“I was so disappointed. I don't know how else to describe it,” Elizabeth Foley, 51, told the Post, reflecting on Cigna's decision to deny her request for a high-tech replacement arm. Mr. Foley's special plan did not cover the cost of advanced prosthetics.
“This was definitely one of the worst experiences I've ever had,” said the former Starbucks barista. “It's insane and so frustrating. I paid for health insurance all my life and lived the healthiest life so I barely used it. But I need their help now. But they won't help me.”
Last June, Foley said he was enjoying a beach vacation with his children in Water Sound, Florida, when he was chest-deep in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico when he spotted the shark.
“It looked like an underwater torpedo,” Foley recalled. “It was huge.”
Mr Foley turned and began swimming towards shore, but was bitten “between the legs” and suffered damage to his pelvis.
“I punched the shark,” Foley said, fearing the shark would target the children next. [her] I had read that if you hit the nose with your left hand, it would disappear.
“It grabbed my hand and dragged me underwater. I thought I was going to die. I cried out to God, 'Please let me live.'
Suddenly she appeared and looked at her arm.
“It was gone,” she said, adding that she saw “four inches of white bone.”
Her husband grabbed her and began to pull her to shore. Luckily, several medical professionals who were also on vacation at the beach came to her aid.
“I remember a group of people in swimsuits lobbying me,” she said. A tourniquet was placed on the severed arm. They also treated her left hip, which was cut in the attack.
“If they hadn't been there, I definitely would have bled out because it took 20 minutes for the ambulance to get there,” Foley said, adding that a series of boardwalks were built just to get to the isolated beach. He pointed out that he had to go through the
Since then, she has endured 25 surgeries and still has several more left.
She already uses a prosthetic hook that is powered by her body, but the myoelectric prosthesis (a prosthetic limb controlled by electrical signals generated by muscles) is life-changing and gives her true independence. Foley said it could lead to
“We don't think about how often we do tasks with our hands until we lose them,” Foley says.
GoFundMe campaign Launched to help Foley fund his bionic arm.
“Many of our health plans cover a large number of prosthetic options, but we are expanding coverage of advanced prosthetics to more people,” a spokesperson for Cigna Healthcare said in a statement. We are considering renewing the benefits.”
