A Missouri woman is still fighting to prove she’s alive after being wrongly pronounced dead more than 15 years ago.
While in college, Madeline-Michelle: Carthen expected to participate in Webster University’s international internship program in the summer of 2007. But she was never able to attend — or even graduate — after she was denied financial aid when her Social Security number suddenly stated as deceased.
Carthen says the problem actually started in November 2006, but she “didn’t become aware” until the school notified her four months later. An unforeseen accident stopped the rest of her life.
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Carthen says CNN “got involved” after her story first gained media attention in 2007. With their help, she learned from the Social Security Administration in Washington, DC, that her files were in a “deceased warehouse.”
Unknowingly, her name was added to the Death Master File, an internal database that collects information about dead people who have Social Security numbers.
Once someone is added to DMF, the IRS, banks and Medicare cancel their existence, according to NBC affiliate KSDK-TV. Their investigation found that the government wrongly marks up to 12,000 Americans as dead each year.
SSA spokesman Darren Lutz told PEOPLE in a statement that while they “cannot discuss individual cases due to privacy laws,” they contacted Carthen “directly to assist with her case.”
The spokesman added that almost 3 million deaths are reported to the SSA each year and that their data is “very accurate”. He noted that of the “millions of death reports we receive each year, less than one-third of 1 percent are subsequently corrected.”
SSA Regional Communications Director John Powell did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. Webster University declined to comment, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
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According to the SSA, a person incorrectly listed as deceased should bring another form of identification to their local SSA office, and after certification, the agency will offer a death certificate with the error to show banks, doctors and others that it was a mistake.
Carthen fought tirelessly to prove she was alive, but says the error has never been resolved – and she has received six wrong death certificates in 16 years.
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Over the years, she has contacted four US presidents – only getting a response from former President Donald Trump – and other government officials. She filed suit in 2019, but it was dismissed after the government said she had sovereign immunity. The 52-year-old — who had been unable to vote or hold down a steady job for a long time — then changed her name and got a new Social Security number in 2021, but she faced setbacks every step of the way.
“I’m in Missouri, but I’m back and forth [between here and Tennessee]”, she tells PEOPLE. “I had to leave my home. I have nowhere to stay. I can’t get a mortgage.”
In addition to the fact that her new court-ordered name was misspelled in some government databases, the wrong Social Security number was even listed on her E-Verify, which employers use to verify that employees are eligible to work.
“I can get a job, but I can’t keep a job,” she says.
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Her 29-year-old son, Kenneth, was also hit. Carthen says he’s having trouble returning to college because she can’t sign his Federal Student Aid application because he doesn’t have a valid Social Security number.
However, she still hopes that whenever her case is “clarified”, she will finally be able to get “adequate employment”.
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And although Carthen has health problems, one fortunate aspect of her nearly 20-year ordeal is that she was able to receive disability benefits, much to her surprise.
“I’m dealing with aortic valve regurgitation and atrial fibrillation. I’m in stage three of kidney failure,” she says. “How come I can go through these things and they classify me as dead and I’m not, but I’m disabled?”
“Everything was taken from me,” she says. “I’m blocked.”
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Source: HIS Education