Google Security Specialist With Double Lung Transplant Wins Metlife LTD Appeal

MetLife denied long term disability benefits for a Google Security Sales Specialist who had undergone a bilateral lung transplant, relying on reviews by nurses rather than physicians. Our disability insurance lawyers got the denial reversed on appeal. Attorneys Gregory Dell and Stephen Jessup discuss this case and provide tips for handling a MetLife disability denial. Our client was a Security Sales Specialist at Google, a high-level role that involved going into corporations and selling them on Google's security services for their data and information systems. He earned well over $250,000 per year. In September 2022, he underwent a bilateral lung transplant — and remarkably, he was back at work within three months. But his performance declined dramatically. His ability to focus, concentrate, and maintain stamina deteriorated, as documented in his own performance reviews at Google. By October 2023, he could no longer continue and filed for disability. MetLife approved his claim and paid benefits starting in April 2024, but denied continued benefits in July 2025. MetLife's denial was built on the thinnest possible foundation. Rather than having physicians review this complex post-transplant case, MetLife assigned two internal nurses — one for the physical component and one for mental health, handled by a licensed social worker. Both concluded that since the lung transplant had stabilized, there was no evidence of continued impairment. This assessment ignored the reality of life after a bilateral lung transplant: our client was hospitalized multiple times in early 2025 for pneumonia and lung-related illness because transplant recipients are immunocompromised and highly susceptible to infection. His body was weakened from repeated hospitalizations. The immunosuppressant medications he must take for the rest of his life are documented in medical literature to cause cognitive problems in over 70% of lung transplant recipients. And Social Security had already approved his disability claim in February 2025 — months before MetLife denied him. If MetLife denied your disability claim after an organ transplant by using nurse reviewers instead of qualified physicians, this case demonstrates how experienced long term disability lawyers expose that kind of inadequate review. Our disability insurance attorneys built a comprehensive appeal targeting every weakness in MetLife's denial. We obtained the complete claim file and identified the gaps in MetLife's nurse-level reviews. We worked closely with our client's treating physicians — top-tier specialists who were deeply frustrated that nurses had overruled their clinical judgment. We secured detailed custom questionnaires from each provider explaining exactly how the combination of physical deconditioning, recurrent hospitalizations, immunosuppressant side effects, and cognitive decline prevented our client from performing not only his former role at Google but any occupation in the national economy. Because prior neuropsychological testing had been somewhat inconclusive and too recent to repeat, we supplemented the cognitive argument with published research studies on post-transplant cognitive effects and detailed documentation from his therapist connecting his symptoms to his functional limitations. We also built up the mental health component of the claim, which our client had not realized could be considered alongside the transplant-related physical disability. MetLife reversed its denial and reinstated benefits with full back pay. Our attorneys continue to monitor this claim on an ongoing basis. #DisabilityInsuranceDenial #DisabilityAppeal #LongTermDisability #DisabilityInsuranceLawyer #MetLife