They need to find out what the second one is. If it's a federal loan, it will never go away. It should be listed with the $2,000 loan in the NSLDS website.
If it's not there, and it's a private loan, there are different rules. At some point it will be beyond the statute of limitations but there's have to look up the state(?) laws on that. Unless they sue them and get a judgement, there's no real way to enforce it. In that case, I'd leave it alone.
If it is a federal loan, I'd take care of it. They never go away and they can garnish wages, take tax refunds, even social security without a judgement. It might show up again, but that can happen if they ignore it too. Out of sight is out of mind would be a mistake in this case.
Overall, we all sometimes give bad advice in helping others. If you do....don't beat yourself up. You didn't get them in this situation and they clearly don't know how to get out of it without your help. You're helping no matter what. 🙂