“John’s my best friend,” James said. “Getting that medicine could save his life. He could get a liver — my liver.”
On a recent crisp October day, the brothers walked Middleton’s property, discussing which trees needed to be trimmed. He said his grass was getting a little too long. James promised he’d come back on the weekend to do the mowing that Middleton can no longer handle.
They, along with their wives, dream of living on the same land someday, doing the work together.
“If I can’t get on Ziihera and things don’t go very well, the odds of me living are going to be in the two- to possibly six-year range,” Middleton said. “That’s tough, knowing my dogs are going to outlive me. I worry about my wife and my mother.”
“I got a lot of people I need to be here for and take care of,” he said.
The day after this story published on NBCNews.com and aired on “Nightly News with Tom Llamas,” the maker of Ziihera, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, said it would cover the cost of the drug for John Middleton under the company’s JazzCares Patient Assistance Program.
CORRECTION (Oct. 24, 2025, 8:50 a.m. ET): A photo caption in a previous version of this article misstated the first name of Middleton’s mother. She is Linda Middleton, not Lisa.
CORRECTION (Oct. 28, 2025, 1:25 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated when Middleton’s doctor, Dr. Martin Palmeri, first requested that Cigna authorize Ziihera. It was in June, not March.
