A toddler needed a life-saving flight, and the insurer said no. Then Mark Cuban called

Stella McMahon was diagnosed with T-cell leukemia at just four months old. Now, a year later to the day, she’s been fighting relentless fevers above 104 degrees for nearly a month; her liver’s overtaxed, and her body’s too immunocompromised to ward off a virus on its own. The cruel irony of Stella’s condition: because she has T-cell leukemia, her doctors at Children’s Minnesota had successfully eradicated her T-cells, the very cells she needed to fight the virus now threatening her life.

Her oncologist, Dr. Lane Miller, identified a solution: a federally funded study at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in which genetically modified T-cells, donated and engineered in a lab, are transfused into the patient. The procedure itself was covered. The medical flight to get Stella there was not.

Her mom, Alexandria, submitted a pre-authorization request through the family’s major insurance provider on a Sunday, March 15. For five days, she heard nothing. “I called them on a Friday just to try to understand what was happening, like why it was taking so long,” she told Fortune, while the sounds of little Stella were heard in the background. “And from that phone call, I learned that we had actually been denied.”​

The silence, she said, was devastating in its timing. “To be denied on a Friday from a major business was quite a hit, because they’re closed on the weekend, and they said that they wouldn’t be getting back to us for 24 to 72 hours, business days.”​ Dr. Miller, McMahon explained, said it was imperative that little 16-month-old Stella receive treatment immediately.

When she pressed the representative for an explanation, she ran into a wall. “She couldn’t tell me the reason why they denied because I didn’t have a medical degree,” McMahon recalled. “I asked her to read [the policy] with me line by line and tell me at what point Stella became disqualified. Because when I read it with my eyes, it looked like everything should be approved.” She recorded the conversation, a decision that would change everything.​

TikTok video leads to a breakthrough

McMahon posted the recorded call on social media, and shortly after, it went viral. “I think within about 12 hours, Dr. Warris, who runs Claimable, one of Mark Cuban’s companies, he said, ‘Mark Cuban saw your video, and he wants me to take care of this for you,’” McMahon said.​

Claimable, co-founded by Dr. Warris Bokhari, a former NHS physician and healthcare strategist, uses AI to help patients and families navigate and appeal insurance denials. The company’s mission is to “amplify your voice, combining it with cutting-edge science and policy insights to help protect your rights,” according to its website.​

Cuban, who has long been a vocal critic of the American healthcare system, wrote on his blog in Jan. 2025 that “healthcare is a very simple industry made complicated,” arguing for radical transparency and the removal of insurance companies from the payment equation. His other healthcare venture, Cost Plus Drugs, has similarly sought to reduce opacity in pharmaceutical pricing.

The McMahon Family

Cuban’s big credit limit and bigger heart

Within 48 hours, the McMahons were on a chartered medical aircraft to Cincinnati, paid for by Cuban and Claimable. “The hospital case manager was able to book a medical flight with Mark Cuban and Claimable’s money,” McMahon clarified.​

The trip needed to happen in a single day. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital did not admit Stella to its campus; she had to remain based in Minneapolis. With Stella connected to five or six pumps, driving was never a realistic option. “She could not ethically be discharged,” McMahon explained, saying the family was so desperate to get Stella her treatment, no idea was too out there. “We were considering renting an RV and just trying.” Even that possibility was off the table, given Stella’s medical needs. A friend of her husband’s who works for Delta had also offered a plane, but that would have meant discharging Stella without medical support and “hoping for the best.”​

Instead, Cuban’s team moved fast. “He basically laid down a credit card right then and there, and said, ‘ Book the flight, book a medical flight,” McMahon said. “And we are going to help you fight insurance after she gets taken care of. Stella is the most important.”​

For McMahon, the speed and generosity of the response were difficult to fully absorb while simultaneously watching her daughter struggle. “We are dramatically humbled. We are so thankful that this happened,” she said. “I still feel like it’s unbelievable. I still feel like I’m kind of coming down from something that was just so exciting and so positive. And it felt weird being so incredibly happy and ecstatic and thankful while watching my daughter clearly struggle.”​

She had no prior knowledge of Cuban’s track record of intervening in cases like Stella’s until the outpouring of comments on her videos. “I had no idea that this person could do something so amazing,” she said. “He has the resources, and he has the heart, and he did it.”​

The McMahon Family

Inspiration to pay it forward

At the time of Fortune‘s interview on Thursday, Stella was showing her first signs of improvement: less jaundiced, her eyes beginning to clear. She was still running fevers above 104 degrees, and her doctors cautioned that the T-cell study can take five to seven days before showing results. But she had avoided an ICU stay. “Stella is now stable,” McMahon said. “She got everything she needs. We’re where we need to be, and it is all thanks to human connection.”​

A GoFundMe organized to help the family cover costs, including lost income for McMahon’s husband, who works in aviation and has had to take time off, had raised over $42,000 toward a $50,000 goal from more than 870 donors as of publication.

McMahon said she hopes to use the attention Stella’s story has drawn to advocate for other families facing the same walls. “If I can turn around and give back to people, I will,” she said. “I will carry this and try to pay it forward for the rest of my life.”

The McMahon Family