Ripped off by American Airlines

During the month of September 08, my wife and mother-in �law purchased two round-trip tickets (TICKET NUMBER 0012146974218, TICKET NUMBER 0012146974217 ) from AA http://www.aa.com for $193 each. On the week of Monday Nov 24 (several days before their flight on Sat, Nov 29, 2008) my wifes Father, my mother-in-laws husband went into the hospital, after having a mild stroke. My wife called AA and explained that they had to cancel their flight, due to a medical emergency and were told that they would lose all of their money with the exception of $43 dollars! each. They were told the 43 dollars had to be used to toward another ticket. Why did AA do this? Could AA not have simply given each of them a $193 CREDIT that they could used toward another flight on AA, within 1 year from the purchase date. AA is a muli-billion dollar company! Are they that hard up for money that they got to take someone elses money? This is a rip off . Why should I ever fly them again? If they need money this bad, then maybe they need a GOVERNEMENT BAILOUT! Whoever wrote this policy should be ashamed!