When drug after drug failed, a teen hoped brain surgery could fix her daily seizures. Insurance denied it.

Since she was 6 years old, Cambrie Sharp has had daily, uncontrolled seizures.Vanessa Valadez for NBC NewsCost of DenialWhen drug after drug failed, a teen hoped brain surgery could fix her daily seizures. Insurance denied it.Several weeks after NBC News reached out to Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield about the denial, the insurer changed its policy to include coverage of deep brain stimulation for certain children. Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00ShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 27, 2026, 6:04 PM EDTBy Ramon Taylor, Marina Kopf and Maggie VespaBrandi Sharp tends to find herself restless at night. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Her 13-year-old daughter, Cambrie, has uncontrolled seizures. Sharp, a mother of three, is constantly up, checking to make sure Cambrie is breathing. During the day, when she’s not at work as a school nurse, Sharp, of rural Hazel Dell, Illinois, is laser-focused on finding effective treatment for Cambrie’s epilepsy. It’s all-consuming, she said.“We tried everything,” Sharp said, listing off more than 20 anti-seizure medications Cambrie’s doctors have prescribed over an eight-year span, including multiple benzodiazepines and phenobarbital. “The medications that typically work for kids don’t work for her. They cause a lot of rebounds,” she said. “The way the neurologist explains it is her epilepsy adapts, and so her brain waves adapt.”Cambrie's service dog Norris is trained to alert and assist her during seizures.Vanessa Valadez for NBC NewsCambrie was born a “micro-preemie” at 27 weeks old. She was healthy until she had a seizure when she was 4 years old. Three weeks later she had another, then one every week. By age 6, she was experiencing several major seizures a day. For more than a year, she was incontinent and lost the ability to speak. When Cambrie was 7, she was hospitalized and put into a medically-induced coma after a particularly difficult stretc...