- Connecticut State Comptroller Sean Scanlon reversed a third insurance denial for Justin Oswell’s rare multivisceral transplant.
- Oswell’s surgery would include liver, pancreas and intestinal transplants from one donor after a medical emergency with a 10% survival chance.
- The case shows how rare, high-cost transplant requests can move beyond insurer review when clinical urgency and plan rules collide.
Connecticut’s comptroller has reversed an insurance denial for a man seeking lifesaving transplant surgery after his insurer rejected coverage three times.
State Comptroller Sean Scanlon said he learned last week that Justin Oswell, a Connecticut resident, had lost coverage approval for the procedure. Scanlon described the matter as unusual in several ways, involving a rare surgery for an unusual injury.
Oswell suffered a sudden medical emergency on Oct. 31, 2025, and doctors said he had only a 10% chance of survival, according to a GoFundMe page created by his sister, Carly Taylor. He survived, but the emergency left severe damage, took him out of work and forced him to focus on recovery.
Taylor wrote that Oswell had spent more than 14 years dealing with complex medical problems and unexplained conditions. Many trace back to his survival from a near-fatal snowmobile accident in 2001. Those health problems led to repeated hospital stays, frequent appointments and travel for care, adding costs for his family while reducing income.
The fundraiser had collected more than $43,000 from 418 donors.
Oswell’s family learned during a March appointment at Cleveland Clinic that a multivisceral transplant offered the only path to saving his life, according to the GoFundMe page.
The surgery would give him a liver, pancreas and intestinal transplant at the same time, with all organs coming from one donor.
The approval process for the transplant required a long evaluation. His family also had to plan a temporary move to Cleveland so he could receive the surgery and remain near the transplant team.
If Oswell receives the transplant, he expects to spend several months in intensive care, then at least six more months living in Cleveland while doctors monitor him closely. Taylor wrote that one of the biggest requirements is that Oswell must never be alone after surgery.
“He will require 24/7 care the entire time he is in Cleveland,” Taylor wrote on the GoFundMe page. She said the transplant team required a list of relatives and friends willing to travel to Cleveland, stay with him around the clock, help him reach appointments, watch for organ rejection and track his medications before it would approve him for the transplant list.
Cleveland Clinic presented Oswell’s case to its transplant board in June for approval and placement on the list, according to the fundraiser.
His transplant team also held a peer-to-peer hearing with the insurance company’s physician to explain why the surgery was medically necessary. The insurer still denied coverage.
After the third denial, Renee Oswell, his wife, wrote on the GoFundMe page that the family’s next step involved requesting an external review through Connecticut.
Scanlon said about 250,000 Connecticut residents have coverage through the state employee health plan his office oversees. During more than three years as comptroller, he said his office has reversed coverage denials only a few times.
After Scanlon overturned the denial, Renee Oswell wrote Monday on the GoFundMe page that the family would tell his clinical team he had approval for the transplant list and insurance coverage.
She said an air ambulance would take him to Cleveland so his medical team could begin care, making the approval call arrive at the right moment.
The case shows how a coverage dispute over rare surgery moved from a health plan decision to direct state oversight. For insurers and benefit administrators, it raises a familiar pressure point: how to evaluate complex transplant requests when clinical urgency, cost and plan rules collide.
