This story is part of NewsChannel 5’s community initiative known as “Medical Debt Rescue." The goal of the project is to shed light on a lopsided medical debt system that has left thousands of Tennesseans with crippling debt and forced many into foreclosure, while also wiping $1.8 million dollars of medical debt in Middle Tennessee. Learn more about the initiative here. NASHVILLE, Tenn.

The phone rang shortly before Christmas in 2014. When Maya Fischer answered, a nurse from the nursing home where her mother had been staying for more than a decade was on the other end of the line. In her Minnesota home, Fischer braced herself for difficult news. "When you receive a phone call from the nursing home, your first thought is that ... my mother has passed," Fischer said. The news was indeed troubling, but it was not what she expected. Content by Realtor.com What makes a neighborhood so special?