Nikki Bradford, New London, MN

It’s easy to think that an accident won’t happen to you, but our lives changed in an instant on a Thursday night in early Aug. 2018. Out of bed to grab a drink of water, my husband, Benjamin, tumbled down the stairs and hit his head so hard that his brain started bleeding.

His fall resulted in a 16-day medically-induced coma, two more weeks in the hospital and re-learning to walk, read and write.

Our lives were upended. We’d fallen asleep looking forward to a busy summer weekend where my greatest concerns were whether we had enough life jackets and if we’d get sunburned. My priorities quickly shifted to calling 9-1-1, watching hospital monitors, hearing alarms go off and praying, praying, praying.

After long days of my waiting and restlessness, Ben was brought out of his coma and began the hard work of therapy and the long process of recovery. Our children and I received an overwhelming amount of support from family, friends, and Ben’s employees at his tree service company.

Miraculously, within two months he was back to work and hunting, fishing and playing with our three young sons.

Our experience with CHM handling the medical bills was also nothing short of amazing. We never had to worry about Ben’s treatment and we were so thankful for the flexibility in choosing our healthcare providers. Whenever I called CHM, the staff members were always patient—and it was evident they cared and prayed for us.

Thanks to our Gold level membership and Brother’s Keeper, we saw over $240,000 in medical bills shared by our brothers and sisters in Christ—after over $124,000 in healthcare provider discounts. Thanks to the staff’s advice and CHM’s written material, I always felt well equipped to deal with questions from the hospital and clinics’ billing staff.

From the night of the accident to the final payment to Ben's providers, we had the whole thing wrapped up in about six months. CHM is lightning fast and it only took minutes to work with CHM staff to understand our next steps when the bills arrived. The medical bill sharing process was quick and easy. (Editor's note: The range of time it takes to share medical bills is broad. Many bills are shared in well under 120 days. Many others can take 120 days or slightly longer.)

As if that weren’t enough to make me CHM’s loudest proponent, the ministry had also shared about $6,000 earlier in 2018 when our toddler, Logan, came down with pneumonia and the flu.

Ben and I are so thankful that in 2017 we joined Christian Healthcare Ministries after hearing about it on The Dave Ramsey Show. I tell everyone about the ministry and how its low cost enables us to live healthier lifestyles by helping us afford higher quality food and supplements. We’ve also been able to add a small home gym in our basement to keep us moving and strong during the long, cold Minnesota winters.

Thank you, CHM, for all that you’ve done for our family. We are so grateful.