Eight years ago, Debbie Shank was stocking shelves for Wal-Mart and signed up for the companies health and benefits plan.

Shortly afterwards, Shank suffered severe brain damage after a traffic accident that robbed her of much of her short-term memory and left her in a wheelchair and living in a nursing home.

Thankfully, she had insurance through Wal-Mart.

Two years after the accident, Shank and her husband, Jim, were awarded about $1 million in a lawsuit against the trucking company involved in the crash. After legal fees were paid, $417,000 was placed in a trust to pay for Debbie Shank's long-term care.

And here's where things get fucked up.

After the lawsuit, Wal-Mart sued Shank for the $470,000 inmedical expenses that their company paid insurance to the family. Somehow, a court ruled that Wal-Mart can recoup what is left in the family's trust.

The Shanks didn't notice in the fine print of Wal-Mart's health plan policy that the company has the right to recoup medical expenses if an employee collects damages in a lawsuit.

Eight days after the ruling, Debbie's 18 year-old son died in combat while serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq.

The family now has no money to care for Debbie.

Debbie's husband, Jim, was forced to divorce her so that she could collect more money from medicare to pay for her costly medical bills. Jim was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Only after public outrage, mostly coming from Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Wal-Mart agreed to not collect the $400,000. That was a month ago and as of today, Wal-Mart has still not returned the money to the Shanks.

Show support for the Shanks at http://hope4shank.com/.......