TULSA, Okla. — Marilyn Gregory, coupled with a heart condition, got a spider bite. She spent 46 days in the hospital before she passed away.
“Just couldn’t fight off the infections, it’s unfortunate,” said her son, Ben Comeau.
WATCH: System upgrade causing Okla. death certificate delays
Comeau has been trying to settle her affairs since her death on May 6.
“You gotta deal with vehicles, you gotta deal with insurance, you gotta deal with banks, you gotta deal with creditors,” said Comeau.
He says without a death certificate, none of the companies will talk to him.
“You just can’t handle any business; you can’t get anything done,” he said.
Comeau said he was getting a lot of back-and-forth from the funeral directors and the state. From the hospital, he wasn’t hearing back at all.
After communication slowed from all three, he contacted 2News to get answers.
“What is the delay? What is going on? How many families are going through this to try and settle everything to get the documents they need?” he wondered.
2News covered a similar story in June.
At the time, Mowery’s funeral service told us it was due to a new online system the state rolled out in April.
“These families between April and May that have gotten caught up in that transition, it is just taking longer for the state to issue those death certificates for those families,” he said.
In an email, a representative for the Oklahoma State Department of Health wrote, “while there were some initial delays during the transition, that backlog has since been resolved. We are committed to processing records as quickly as possible.”
They also told 2 News that Marilyn Gregory’s death certificate was mailed out July 22, which is one day after we asked about it.
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