Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey got an email about a young family in trouble. The couple, both lawyers in New Orleans, were on vacation when their 19-month-old daughter fell ill and, for a time, was in a medically induced coma. The family needed a medical evacuation airlift to get her back to New Orleans, but their insurance company was saying it wouldn’t pay.
Zainey, a New Orleans federal judge who has coordinated a support network for Louisiana’s legal community since 2002, sent their request to the network and was flooded with responses from members who had contacts with hospitals, medical transport companies and the couple’s insurance company. Within 12 hours, plans were under way to bring the family home.
