Someone has to be the guarantor of record, or billing flags it in an audit.” “That’s my sister,” Brady said.

“She never reads the fine print when she’s scared.

When she comes in wrecked, you put the guarantor form in her hand, tell her the surgeons can’t scrub in without it, and she signs.

Once she’s on that line, the debt’s legally hers.” I stood in the dark and understood, with the flat clarity I use at work, exactly what that form was.

As guarantor I would be personally, inescapably liable for a fraudulent debt — and if I later refused to pay, the hospital could garnish my wages, lien my property, gut my credit.