A doctor in the US has decided to completely erase the debt of nearly 200 cancer patients, wiping $650,000 (£475,000) worth of bills after realising many of them were simply 'unable to pay'.
Oncologist Dr. Omar Atiq closed his cancer clinic in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, back in March, following 29 years in business.
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As he worked with a billing company to try and collect payments from former patients he'd treated, eventually Atiq made the bold, generous choice to stop reaching out.
Over the festive period, around 200 people received a Christmas card from Atiq, which read: "The Arkansas Cancer Clinic was proud to have you as a patient. Although various health insurances pay most of the bills for majority of patients, even the deductibles and co-pays can be burdensome. Unfortunately, that is the way our health care system currently works.
"Arkansas Cancer Clinic is closing its practice after over 29 years of dedicated service to the community. The clinic has decided to forego all balances owed to the clinic by its patients."
According to Atiq, the patients he sent the card to had medical debts totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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He explained how he's always felt uneasy about sick patients having to worry about money on top of health concerns, having sometimes seen people go bankrupt trying to pay for treatment.
Speaking to Good Morning America, he explained: "Over time I realised that there are people who just are unable to pay.
"So my wife and I, as a family, we thought about it and looked at forgiving all the debt.
"We saw that we could do it and then just went ahead and did it."
Atiq continued: "Since I started practicing, I've always been rather uncomfortable with sick patients not only having to worry about their own health and quality of life and their longevity and their families and their jobs but also money.
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"That's always tugged at me.
"You add to it the absolute devastation that the [coronavirus] pandemic has wrought, and you think thank God that we're fairly comfortable and this was something we could at least do to help the community.
"I saw patients over the years who just didn't have anything or who went bankrupt trying to pay for their treatment.
"In many ways it seems like a totally unfair situation."
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Atiq is now a professor at a professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, and his four children are either doctors or studying to become doctors.
Featured Image Credit: Fox