Profit, Loss, and Miracles

After a ten-year struggle with lupus, Zelphoe Gabrielle (Gabby) Maloney was near death. Treatments for the autoimmune disease, as well as the disease itself, were destroying her internal organs. But Gabby never accepted that she would die. She had five children and a devoted husband who gave her an indomitable will to live.

Only one option was open to her. Only one procedure would save her life: a stem cell transplant. Her insurance company would not authorize it. After multiple appeals, she...