Via Carrie Ann Lucas’ obituary. Carrie Ann Lucas.

Carrie Ann Lucas — an attorney and well-known disability rights activist best known for pioneering representation for parents with disabilities — died Sunday at the age of 47 in her hometown of Windsor, Colorado. According to her obituary, which was posted to her Facebook page, Lucas died due to complications that occurred “after an arbitrary denial from an insurance company caused a plethora of health problems, exacerbating her disabilities and eventually leading to her premature death.”

Lyn Alweis via Getty Images Carrie Ann Lucas in 2004.

“We are saddened to hear of Ms. Lucas’s passing,” a representative from United Healthcare, Lucas’ insurer, told HuffPost in an email. “Our care advocates and clinical teams work extensively with members suffering from chronic conditions and their families to help these individuals get access to care covered under their plans.” Activists and advocates of the disability community expressed their sadness while honoring Lucas online.

How do we honor the our disabled elders & ancestors?



When I first found out that Carrie Ann Lucas @DisabilityCubed died 3 days ago, it was painful. Like countless of sick, chronically ill, and disabled people, she died at the hands of the medical industrial complex. — Alice Wong (@DisVisibility) February 27, 2019

My friend @DisabilityCubed was killed over $2000. She shouldn’t be. You should be pissed. https://t.co/sge7F46zNb — Rebecca Cokley (@RebeccaCokley) February 27, 2019

I met Carrie Ann Lucas at Society for Disability Studies in 2012. She came to the "family members of disabled persons" group because she wanted to better understand the situation of her kids. An amazing person. Killed by an insurance company rejection.https://t.co/6eOa2wKMYt — Harold Braswell (@haroldbraswell) February 26, 2019

Today Carrie Ann Lucas died because an insurance company denied the cost of an antibiotic, which lead to even greater healthcare costs and complications, and now she’s gone. Do not forget this. https://t.co/3jQNIUEast — karolyn gehrig (@karolynprg) February 25, 2019

I love this story of Carrie Ann Lucas's civil disobedience as part of @NationalADAPT's #SummerOfADAPT. She explained that by not showing the police how to work her power chair, she wasn't resisting arrest, just not helping them do so. Textbook civil disobedience.

Rest in power. https://t.co/Wp3J9PM0HD — Lisa Diedrich (@lldiedrich) February 25, 2019

“Carrie Ann Lucas should be remembered and honored because of all the activism and changes she achieved despite societal and systematic discrimination that attempted to impede her every step of the way.”#RestInPower#CarrieAnnLucas@WMDisabilityhttps://t.co/TnKbTE2Bm0 — Women's March (@womensmarch) February 26, 2019

This is a gut-wrenching loss. We know about it because Carrie Ann Lucas, also know as @DisabilityCubed, was a giant presence in the disability rights world. How many times does this happen - and we don't know? How many die from insurance denials? #DisabilityRightshttps://t.co/eOtVuH4qkp — Susan Mizner (@spmizner) February 25, 2019

Lucas had a rare form of muscular dystrophy, used a power wheelchair, breathed with the assistance of a ventilator, had low vision and was hard of hearing. In January 2018, she got a bad cold, which turned into a trach and lung infection. United Healthcare refused to pay for a specific medication she needed, her obit says. She took a “less effective” drug instead and had a bad response to it, losing function including her speech. “… Her insurance company thought that the medication she needed to recover from a lung infection was too expensive and instead approved a drug that would lead to her loss of speech and her eventual death,” Rebecca Cokley, director for disability policy at the Center for American Progress and a friend of Lucas’, wrote for the advocacy site Disability Visibility Project. “Carrie Ann Lucas died to save $2,000, even though it ended up costing the insurance company over $1 million to try and salvage their error.” Dr. Kimberly Jackson, Lucas’ partner, told the Fort Collins Coloradoan that Lucas went into cardiac arrest Wednesday and died from complications from an infection. “She was an amazing person who dedicated her whole life to helping other people and I just miss her so much and so will the disability community,” Jackson told the outlet. “We have a similar disability and she understood me like no one has before.”