She borrowed money to bury her husband. Then the funeral home told her a key document was missing and the hospital wasn’t responding.

HOUSTON — A Houston woman says she has spent weeks trying to obtain the correct paperwork from a hospital after her husband’s death, a delay she says has prevented her from properly laying him to rest.

Danielle Batiste-Simmons lost her husband, Joseph Simmons, earlier this year after a long battle with kidney disease. But instead of grieving, she says she has been forced to navigate repeated paperwork issues that left his funeral arrangements in limbo.

Batiste-Simmons remembers her husband as the heart of their extended family.

“The whole family called him ‘Unkie Joe,’” she said. “A lot of them say he was the only dad they ever knew. He was always a listening ear. He took care of everybody he could.”

Simmons previously received two donor kidneys, but his health began to decline rapidly last summer. Doctors determined he would need another transplant, and he was placed on the waiting list.

“He was on the list because he wasn’t going to quit,” Batiste-Simmons said. “He was going to get another kidney.”

But his condition worsened before another transplant became possible. Simmons was admitted to the hospital, placed on dialysis, and eventually put on life support.

Doctors and his family ultimately agreed that he would not recover.

“We made the decision to remove the life support on January the 20th,” she said.

Some of Simmons’ organs were donated to recipients after his death. Batiste-Simmons said she immediately faced another challenge, paying for funeral arrangements.

“We left the hospital, and I immediately had to plan a funeral that I had no money for,” she said.

She borrowed what she could to cover the costs. But when Simmons’ body arrived at the mortuary from the hospital, the funeral director discovered a critical document was missing.

According to Batiste-Simmons, the hospital had not included a “face sheet,” a document that accompanies a body when it is transferred from a hospital to a funeral home. The form contains key details needed to prepare a death certificate. Without it, the funeral home could not move forward with the process.

Batiste-Simmons and the mortuary director say they spent weeks attempting to obtain the paperwork from St. Luke’s Health – Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, located in the Texas Medical Center. During that time, Simmons’ body remained in limbo.

“I can’t grieve when I’m making these phone calls back and forth all day long,” Batiste-Simmons said.

She says the hospital finally responded after she threatened to contact the media and sent paperwork last week. But when the documents arrived, they contained another error: the wrong date of death.

Instead of January 20, the paperwork listed February 20.

“That is a clear month after my husband passed away,” she said.

Without a death certificate, Batiste-Simmons says she has been unable to access important financial accounts or begin settling her husband’s affairs.

“I can’t get into his Social Security. I can’t get into his bank accounts that I’m not on,” she said.

After KHOU 11 reached out to the hospital about the situation, a spokesperson responded in an email, thanking the station for bringing the issue to their attention and saying staff would work directly with Batiste-Simmons to resolve it.

On Thursday evening, Batiste-Simmons said a doctor called to apologize and told her the hospital would provide more information the next morning.

For Batiste-Simmons, the wait has been emotionally draining.

“I’ve been married for 40 and a half years,” she said. “I’ve known the man since I was 14 years old. He died and people are just being careless with my life.”

She says she hopes the issue will finally be resolved so she can begin grieving — and give her husband the proper farewell he deserves.

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