Friday, October 26, 2007

You'd Think a Coroner...

...would have the papers he needs to complete his work. You'd think.

I called about Mama's death certificate yesterday and was told, after the funeral director checked for me, that the coroner "had been out of death certificates." It was so ridiculous that I laughed!

"That would be like ya'll being out of caskets!"

He agreed.

What do you do but wait? What can you do?

The hospice house told the funeral director that several were in the same situation during that time period. It appears they have waited until the families wanting this document for their loved one called about it. Did the coroner not keep a list to complete the certificate when he did get them? How can a coroner not have death certificates?? Are there some who will never have a death certificate because no one called about it? This is total ineptitude on the coroner's part, and that's putting it nicely. What if we had really had to have a death certificate? If someone had been waiting for money I bet it would have been checked on before now, and not by me!

I asked the funeral director to please be sure the date the coroner had on his certificate, when they do get it at the FH, has September 1 on it, because I sure don't want it filed with the State, then discover it has the wrong date on it. Mama died September 1 around 11:00 P.M. I don't know what time the coroner pronounced her, or what time he got there or what time he left. All that is a blur, but I do know it was still September 1.

What is wrong with people these days? I'm surprised anything gets done. Sometimes when I'm watching Modern Marvels or Discovery programs and see scientists, doctors, professionals who are in charge of multi-billion dollar projects - for instance, ice-breaking ships - I think these things have to be right. Heart surgery has to be right. Assembly lines have to be right. Lumberjacks have to know which way the tree is going to fall! Violin makers have to know how to assemble that instrument. People who make Hershey's Kisses have to know how to get that little paper tag in the top of the foil!

So why can't a coroner keep a stack of death certificates?



1 comment:

Saline County, Arkansas Photos said...

If a woman was running the show, that would never happen.