Good to hear from someone who knows something about it.
I'll pipe up here and identify myself as someone who's filed bankruptcy in the not-so-so-distant past. Yes, I know that's almost like inviting all the @$$h0!es to come out of the woodwork and condemn me, but I'm not known for being too much less than frank, so let the jerkos flame away.
We spent many years doing charitable work overseas at a low level of income, out of a strong desire to do our part to help people and make the world a better place. Unfortunately all of our training and experience was in a technical field, which meant our knowledge and skills were totally out of date when we returned to the US after years of serving overseas.
In spite of years of low income, we had thousands of dollars of cash when we came back... (we've always lived very frugally) but employment opportunities were very limited, especially for someone who had been out of the field for a long time, so I attempted to start my own business. As hard as I tried, it was a disaster and we were already deep in debt before we pulled the plug and I managed, months later, to come up with a job.
That lasted less than a year (with most of our "extra" money going to try and pay down the debt) before I ended up unemployed again, and this time, there was no job. Second interviews, companies that seemed to like me very well, but never an offer.
After a couple of years of things like manual labor that just about nobody else would do, telemarketing for $10 an hour, unrelenting disappointment on the "real" job application front, daily harassment from creditors and still desperately searching for a way out, I ended up desperately depressed. I considered suicide before I considered bankruptcy.
In the end I dragged myself out of severe, hopeless depression (that alone took almost a year) and started my own business again. After the first experience, that was the LAST thing on earth I wanted to even attempt, but with no other options that could support my large family I gave it a shot, as it seemed the only way I would ever work in my field again, or make more than about $10 an hour doing work I could hardly stomach going to.
I'm still only making about $20,000 a year to support a large family, and we barely scrape by, but things are better than they've been for a long time. I can't say enough that's good about the bankruptcy process - it gave me hope that I could have a life again.
An awful lot of the posters here who talk about "rolling with the punches" on medical bills probably have decent health insurance. That's getting tougher to obtain, I only got health insurance at the beginning of this month, I couldn't afford it since September, 2000. For many people, the bankruptcy laws ARE their health insurance.
To me, the key to your post is your comment that you had lived very frugally and saved money for a rainy day. Despite that, life threw you some curve balls. You tried to roll with the punches and, after exhausting everything, you finally took bankruptcy.
You led your life MUCH differently than the people in the post whose "whole lives" were described as "emergencies."
I, for one, admire you for landing on your feet after what you have been through.
I just don't think that all that many bankruptcies, however, are based on such legitimate circumstances.