'Like a miracle': N.C. couple free of nearly $100,000 medical debt after 15 years
The lien on Donna and Gary Lindabury's home for a 15-year-old medical debt was one of 11,500 released by Atrium Health after an NBC News report.
For 15 years, Donna and Gary Lindabury, of Vylas, North Carolina, lived with the financial equivalent of an anvil over their heads: a medical debt owed to a nonprofit hospital that at one point reached $200,000.
The debt, owed to Atrium Health for emergency heart surgery Gary underwent in 2009, grew over the years to include almost $100,000 in interest charges, Donna, 72, told NBC News. “We were striving, we were trying, we paid our bills,” she said. “But I just couldn’t afford to pay that hospital.”
As the years went by and the debt remained, the hospital system placed a lien on the Lindaburys’ home, allowing it to recover what was owed if the couple sold the property.
“We’ve been just so consumed with just trying to get by with this problem,” Gary, 80, said.
The Lindaburys' debt to Atrium Health from 2009 grew over time to include almost $100,000 in interest charges.NBC NewsThen, in early November, the Lindaburys received a letter from Atrium Health telling them it was removing what was left on the lien — $92,262 — and leaving them free and clear of any obligation to the hospital.
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