Ransomware locked our clinic out of every patient chart

I am a doctor for a non-profit clinic. I remember sitting in my office at 3AM in the morning not knowing what to do because every single terminal in our clinic was showing a red screen. No patient charts. No imaging. Nothing.

Earlier that day, we were locked out of our systems with a message from a hacker asking for 2.5 Bitcoin or we lose everything. We were turning patients away at the door because we don’t even know what meds they’re allergic to. 20+ oncology patients who needed their schedules.

The backups? They got those too. They were sitting on our network for months just waiting to pull the rug out. I had to choose between paying to criminals or potentially letting my patients' health deteriorate because we were "flying blind." The ethical weight of this was suffocating. We’re a non-profit clinic. We didn't have that kind of money to spare. I remember thinking to myself that I’m done.