When Covid deaths are omitted on death certificates, families may pay the price

'It’s like we didn’t count': when Covid deaths are omitted, families pay the price Inaccurate and incomplete death certificates hurt those seeking relief, recourse and closure after a loved one dies Melissa Bailey and Eli Cahan of Kaiser Health News the Guardian

On Sundays, Bishop Bruce Davis preached love. Through his Pentecostal ministry, he organized youth parades and gave computers, bicycles and food to families in need.

During the week, Bruce practiced what he preached, caring for prisoners at a Georgia hospital. On 27 March he began coughing, and on 1 April he was hospitalized. He had tested positive for Covid-19. The virus swept through his household, infecting his wife and daughter and hospitalizing their disabled son. Ten days after landing in the hospital, Bruce died.

But when Gwendolyn Davis received her husband’s death certificate, she was taken aback. The causes of death? Sepsis and renal failure. No mention of Covid.

“He wouldn’t have had kidney failure if he didn’t have Covid,” Gwendolyn said.

After Bruce died, his wife applied to two pandemic relief programs seeking help with $1,500 in missed payments on a truck and an electricity bill. But, she said, she was denied because his death certificate didn’t mention Covid-19. ...

Inaccurate death certificates can make it harder to pursue a lawsuit or win a workers’ compensation case when a loved one dies after contracting Covid on the job....