Dear Sir,

Today (June 14, 2023), I was able to collect the death certificate for my husband, Frederick Innis Wood Ingham, known as Osensei Skipper, who died on November 9, 2022. The autopsy report, which his doctor said was not needed as it would not be dispositive, was collected on the day he died and has the received date of November 14, but was not signed by the pathologist until May 4.

The first paragraph of the clinical report contains two glaring errors. It says he fell down four flights of stairs or 20 steps, both of which cannot be true — we lived on the second floor. It also says I told medical personnel that he must have been knocked out before arrival, which I did not say. As a lay person, I have no idea about the correctness of the technical part of the autopsy, but the occurrence of these mistakes is upsetting.

Not having the death certificate has prevented me from applying for a survivor’s benefit from his US social security and from concluding other matters. Now that I have the document, more time will pass to process that application, so probably eight or nine months will have passed since his death before all these details can be concluded, if I am lucky.

Over the time since my husband passed, I have called the hospital, the mortuary, the Coroner’s Office and the Registrar multiple times to try to learn what was taking so long, only to be told that that’s how it is, and some people are waiting for death certificates for people who died in 2020.

We suffer enough when a loved one passes away; the torturous delay in finalising the paperwork extends the pain.

KRISTINA INGHAM

Warwick