“Diagnosis: Debt” is a reporting partnership between KHN and NPR exploring the scale, impact, and causes of medical debt in America. Learn more.
Cindy Powers, 52, Greeley, Colorado
Approximate Medical Debt: $250,000
Medical Issue: Twisted intestine
What Happened: Cindy Powers was 34 when doctors discovered she had a twisted intestine, a potentially life-threatening condition that doctors told her required immediate surgery.
She and her husband, Jim, were living outside Dallas at the time, where Jim had a job with a school district.
They had health insurance. But it couldn’t protect them from the flood of medical bills that swamped them after Cindy’s diagnosis.
Cindy’s first surgery, which lasted nine hours, would be followed by 18 more operations at hospitals across the Dallas-Fort Worth area. “Nobody was able to come up with a solution,” Jim said.
Cindy had recurring infections and hernias. Persistent pain left her addicted to the opioids she’d been prescribed.
“It was five years of hell,” Jim said of his wife’s medical ordeal.
By the time a surgeon finally repaired Cindy’s intestines in 2009, the couple had some $250,000 in medical debt. They declared bankruptcy.
The Powers also ended up losing their home when their mortgage was sold and the new lender rejected the payment plan set up through the bankruptcy.
A few years later, their adult daughter died. And in 2017, Cindy and Jim moved back to Colorado, where Cindy was from.
