It took nearly a year, and going public with their financial setbacks, for the Sonterres of St. Francis to achieve their goal — a modified mortgage that will keep their lender from repossessing their home.

In January, the Star Tribune reported how the Sonterres were unable to get a straight answer on their request for a mortgage modification from Chase Home Finance. That story brought a flood of "me too" phone calls to Whistleblower from struggling homeowners across Minnesota. The attention also seemed to prod Chase into action. The Sonterres suddenly got reassuring phone calls from high-ranking bank reps. Yet after a few weeks, Jennifer Sonterre said, she stopped getting her phone calls returned.

Then came the call a few weeks ago from an extremely well-known morning news program. Sonterre told me that someone at the program had read my story and wanted Sonterre to tell her story to a national TV audience. She wasn't sure she wanted to do that, but she did let Chase know about the invitation.

Five days later, the deal was in hand. On March 10, the family reached an agreement with Chase in which they would pay $60 more each month, and they would no longer be considered in default because of previous missed payments, she said.

"We are just really happy to have this behind us," she said.

The irony is not lost on me. I wrote the story about the Sonterres to put a human face on the mortgage modification mess. I'm grateful that their lender responded, but I'm also aware that so many others in the same or worse circumstances won't get that same consideration. Many of the institutions the Whistleblower team writes about are savvy enough to correct an individual problem brought to their attention.

Yet the question remains: how do you get the attention of a mortgage lender or some other giant institution when you can't get your story on the news?