Here's what was really happening: Steve Jobs's liver was failing and he was learning that he needed to replace it or else he would die.
Around this time, Steve began looking for a new liver. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one doing so in California. In fact, over 3,400 Californians were waiting for a new liver in 2009. Only 671 got one. 400 died.
What Steve probably did next, in the weeks between January and March, was what most wealthy Americans with failing livers do in the same situation: travel around the US and pay big fees to be examined by various doctors at various hospitals in order to get on as many waiting lists as possible.
This process is called multiple-listing, and its benefit is that when looking for a patient who needs a liver, hospitals look at their own lists before moving on to the national one.
The process is very time consuming. One of the hospitals where Steve got listed required an interview with a doctor, an interview with a a social worker, complete medical work including lab tests, an abdominal ultrasound, psychological clearance, a colonoscopy, an EKG, "and a number of other tests."
Of course, anybody who needs an new organ to survive would go through such an ordeal over and over again. Most just can't afford to. Their insurance companies only cover one listing because getting listed is very expensive.
