Mission family waits months for death certificate of loved one
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A Mission family is still waiting on their father's death certificate. He died three months ago, and they say they can't close out accounts, access money or get closure without that piece of paper.
"It's just been such a hardship on everybody," Diane Tardif said.
Tardif is the daughter of Maurice Valence, who died on February 19, 2023. Now three months later, his family is still waiting for his death certificate.
"What happened? Why did we fall through the cracks for something this important?" Tardif said.
Tardif says a few weeks after his death, she questioned Mission Regional Medical Center where he died and Rivera Funeral Home, who handled his burial.
She wasn't the only one asking questions. Marc Gonzalez is the director of Rivera Funeral Home, and he says he requested information from the hospital as well.
He wanted to know the name of the doctor with Valence at the time of his death, but three times he got three different answers from Mission Regional.
"I wish that it was an isolated case, but it happens more than I would like to happen," Gonzalez said.
The simple clerical mistake is what has been causing the delay for Tardif and the funeral home.
"You don't feel like you're prioritized. Dad dies, we're going onto the next patient you know. So what if the paperwork slips through a crack? They don't care. It feels like they don't care," Tardif said.
We reached out to Mission Regional Medical Center, and they referred us to the company who contracts the doctors, MD Hospitalists.
In a statement, they said, "This was an unfortunate situation. Unfortunately, there was miscommunication with the appropriate physician, which resulted in a delay for several weeks. Once the physician of record was identified, the death certificate was signed in a timely manner."
Once the funeral home gets the correct doctor's signature, they can finish the death certificate and hand it to Tardif.
She says she'll be waiting, so her family can close out this chapter.
Watch the video above for the full story.
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