A Microsoft program manager from Austin, Texas, had her short-term disability benefits terminated by Prudential despite a serious and worsening constellation of comorbid conditions that had left her unable to perform the demands of her occupation or any other. Prudential claimed the medical evidence no longer supported any impairment, which was a position that stood in stark contrast to a medical record documenting liver cirrhosis, severe anemia, pancytopenia, thrombocytopenia, recurrent hospitalizations, and ongoing multidisciplinary specialist care. She turned to Dabdoub Law Firm, where Attorney Kevin Probst built a comprehensive appeal anchored by a two-day Functional Capacity Evaluation confirming she could not return to work even at a sedentary level, supported by her treating provider's unequivocal disability opinion and letters from five people who had witnessed her decline firsthand. Prudential reversed its termination decision and reinstated our client's benefits in full.
What to Know About This Case:
- A Microsoft program manager from Austin, Texas, had her short-term disability benefits terminated by Prudential despite liver cirrhosis, severe anemia, pancytopenia, and a range of serious comorbid conditions so debilitating that she had been hospitalized multiple times and required transfusions and bone marrow evaluation.
- Attorney Kevin Probst built an appeal demonstrating that Prudential's claim of no documented impairment was contradicted by a two-day Functional Capacity Evaluation, extensive specialist records, and the unequivocal opinion of our client's longtime treating provider.
- Dabdoub Law Firm secured full reinstatement of our client's disability insurance benefits without the need for litigation.
A Demanding Career Derailed by Comorbid Conditions
Our client had built a successful career at Microsoft as a Business Program Manager. Her role demanded analytical judgment, strategic thinking, stakeholder communication, program execution, and the ability to manage complex business processes and performance metrics with consistency and reliability across a full workday. The tasks require the kind of focused thinking that becomes impossible when a person's body is simultaneously fighting multiple serious medical conditions at once.
When our client stopped working in August 2025, the medical picture was already serious. She was dealing with liver cirrhosis and its cascading complications, including portal venous hypertension, esophageal varices, edema, and ascites, alongside severe anemia, pancytopenia, thrombocytopenia, electrolyte abnormalities, severe urinary incontinence, cognitive impairment, anxiety, and depression. The conditions reinforced and compounded one another, producing a level of physical and cognitive dysfunction that made returning to any form of sustained employment a realistic impossibility.
As the months progressed, her condition worsened. Laboratory results documented critically abnormal values, including hemoglobin levels as low as 6.0 g/dL at one point during a March 2026 hospitalization, and platelet counts falling to approximately 36,000 per microliter, well below the threshold considered safe for normal daily activity, let alone occupational functioning. She required blood transfusions, cryoprecipitate, and bone marrow evaluation. Recurrent falls became a documented pattern, driven by her thrombocytopenia and resulting in serious bruising, multiple hematomas, and significant knee swelling. Her physicians determined she was not an appropriate surgical candidate because of the bleeding risks her condition created. Through it all, her fatigue was profound, her mobility was impaired, her cognitive functioning was compromised, and her day-to-day life had become dominated by nausea, vomiting, incontinence, and exhaustion. Five people close to our client, including family members and others who observed her condition directly, each submitted letters describing the same deteriorating reality that her medical records confirmed.
Attorney Probst Dismantled Prudential's Claim That No Impairment Existed
Prudential's termination letter stated that the medical evidence did not support impairment, restrictions, or limitations due to a psychiatric or physical condition. For a claimant whose medical records documented hospitalizations, transfusions, bone marrow evaluation, critically low blood counts, recurrent falls, and the unequivocal disability opinion of a longtime treating provider, that conclusion was not a close call.
The centerpiece of our case was a two-day Functional Capacity Evaluation conducted by a licensed physical therapist, which assessed our client's functional capacity across two separate sessions. The FCE concluded that our client would be inappropriate for returning to work full-time even at a sedentary level, citing poor endurance when performing activities and postures that supported her reported fatigue, frequent bladder urgency, nausea, physical weakness, and significant cognitive deficits. An independent occupational therapist then reviewed and validated the FCE, confirming its findings and concluding that our client was unable to return to work in any capacity. Courts have long recognized the two-day FCE as one of the most reliable means of objectively assessing a claimant's true functional level, and this one left no room for Prudential to argue that our client retained the capacity to resume her occupation.
Attorney Probst paired the FCE and validation report with the opinion of our client's longtime primary care provider, a board-certified nurse practitioner who had treated her through the full progression of her illness. That provider concluded unequivocally that our client remained medically unable to work, citing the severity of her chronic liver disease and associated complications, the critical laboratory values documenting her hematologic compromise, her increased fall risk, and the cognitive impairment interfering with her concentration, physical endurance, and safe mobility. Specialist records from hematology, oncology, hepatology, and urology confirmed the same picture from multiple independent clinical perspectives.
Presented with that comprehensive record, Prudential had no defensible basis for maintaining its termination decision. The insurer reversed course and reinstated our client's disability insurance benefits in full without the matter ever reaching federal court
Lawyers with Expertise in Disability Insurance Claims & Appeals
At Dabdoub Law Firm, disability insurance is all we do. We represent clients nationwide and have successfully handled disability insurance claims involving:
- Long term disability denials and appeals
- Individual disability insurance claims
- Depression and anxiety disorders
- Cognitive impairment and memory loss
- Neurological conditions
- Medication side effects
We have taken on every major insurance company and have built a proven track record of success, including victories in federal court.
Because we specialize in long-term disability, our clients get the benefit of:
- Having an attorney who is an expert in long-term disability claims;
- Having an attorney who has experience with every major disability insurance company; and
- Being backed by a law firm that has a proven track record of winning tough disability lawsuits.
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If your disability claim has been denied or you are struggling to navigate the claims process, we can help.
We help with:
- Filing a disability insurance claim
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- Filing a lawsuit against your disability insurance company
We represent clients nationwide and charge no fees unless we win your case.
Call (800) 969-0488 or contact us online to speak with an experienced disability attorney. Pay no fees or costs unless you get paid.