Death has been “dragged out” for a widow who described a “torturous“ wait for her husband’s death certificate to settle her affairs.

Kristina Ingham’s husband, celebrated martial arts expert Skipper Ingham, died on November 9, 2022.

She said paperwork for the issuance of his death certificate was not signed off by the pathologist until May 4 of this year.

“It’s very distressing,” Mrs Ingham said yesterday. “Your loved one has died, and you can’t bring to an end all of this paperwork that you’re required to do, in reference to his death.

“Now there is still another process that I have to go through. My understanding is that I am eligible for a survivor’s benefit, because he was on US Social Security. But I could not apply without the death certificate.”

Death certificates are issued by the Registrar General’s office in the final step of paperwork, but they cannot be completed without the requisite documents.

Walter Roban, the Minister of Home Affairs, announced this month in the House of Assembly that the department drew up death certificates within ten working days once a final death notice, known as a Form E, had been received.

Mr Roban told MPs that compounding the loss of a loved one with “the unfortunate delay in the issuance of a death certificate to the deceased’s family members only prolongs their grief as they are not able to settle the affairs of the deceased”.

Mrs Ingham’s Letter to the Editor describing her ordeal was published by The Royal Gazette that same date, June 16 — directly after she finally received the certificate.

She said she had been told at the Registry General’s department that officials were still waiting to sign on certificates for people who had died in 2020.

“That didn’t tell me very much about what happened with my certificate,” Mrs Ingham said. “But if it’s true, that’s even worse.”

Her case echoed a string of delays reported by the Gazette in 2020.

A 63-year-old Devonshire widow described getting bounced between the coroner’s office and the pathology department at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital as she waited three months for her husband’s certification.

A Smith’s woman subsequently reported waiting more than nine months for her son’s death certificate after his life was claimed by type 1 diabetes.

Another described the anguish of waiting one year to receive her brother’s paperwork.

We reported in 2020 that the coroner’s office was processing paperwork within 48 hours to hand on to the Registrar General.

Juan Wolffe, who was then senior magistrate and thus held responsibility for the coroner’s office, said the department would report cause of death after the hospital supplied the autopsy results — which were also used to decide if an inquest was needed.

In Mr Ingham’s case, his widow said the family were required to get an autopsy performed contrary to the advice of their GP, who insisted the procedure was not necessary.

The 92-year-old Mr Ingham died after striking the back of his head on their staircase at home.

They said the autopsy report contained errors, citing a fall down four flights of stairs, which their house does not have, and that she informed medics that her husband appeared to have been “knocked out before arrival”, which she stated she did not say.

“That is a total nonsense,” Mrs Ingham added. “Knocked out before arrival where? At the hospital? It does not make any sense.”

She said a hospital pathologist did not electronically sign off on the report until nearly six months later.

According to our 2020 report on delays, the pathologist’s office blamed a “communication’s error” with the coroner’s office for a lengthy wait — but said the two departments would “improve their communications“.

The Gazette placed a query to the hospital yesterday, but a response was not received by press time.

• To read the ministerial statement on the process for obtaining a death certificate, click on the PDF under “Related Media”