trying to obtain the correct paperwork<\/a> from a hospital after her husband\u2019s death, a delay she says has prevented her from properly laying him to rest.<\/p>\nDanielle 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.<\/p>\n
Batiste-Simmons remembers her husband as the heart of their extended family.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole family called him \u2018Unkie Joe,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cA 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was on the list because he wasn\u2019t going to quit,\u201d Batiste-Simmons said. \u201cHe was going to get another kidney.\u201d<\/p>\n
But his condition worsened before another transplant became possible. Simmons was admitted to the hospital, placed on dialysis, and eventually put on life support.<\/p>\n
Doctors and his family ultimately agreed that he would not recover.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made the decision to remove the life support on January the 20th,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Some of Simmons\u2019 organs were donated to recipients after his death. Batiste-Simmons said she immediately faced another challenge, paying for funeral arrangements.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe left the hospital, and I immediately had to plan a funeral that I had no money for,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She borrowed what she could to cover the costs. But when Simmons\u2019 body arrived at the mortuary from the hospital, the funeral director discovered a critical document was missing.<\/p>\n
According to Batiste-Simmons, the hospital had not included a \u201cface sheet,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
Batiste-Simmons and the mortuary director say they spent weeks attempting to obtain the paperwork from St. Luke\u2019s Health \u2013 Baylor St. Luke\u2019s Medical Center, located in the Texas Medical Center. During that time, Simmons\u2019 body remained in limbo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t grieve when I\u2019m making these phone calls back and forth all day long,\u201d Batiste-Simmons said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Instead of January 20, the paperwork listed February 20.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a clear month after my husband passed away,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Without a death certificate, Batiste-Simmons says she has been unable to access important financial accounts or begin settling her husband\u2019s affairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t get into his Social Security. I can\u2019t get into his bank accounts that I\u2019m not on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
On Thursday evening, Batiste-Simmons said a doctor called to apologize and told her the hospital would provide more information the next morning.<\/p>\n
For Batiste-Simmons, the wait has been emotionally draining.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been married for 40 and a half years,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve known the man since I was 14 years old. He died and people are just being careless with my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says she hopes the issue will finally be resolved so she can begin grieving \u2014 and give her husband the proper farewell he deserves.<\/p>\n
Got a news tip or story idea? Email us at\u00a0newstips@khou.com\u00a0<\/a>or call 713-521-4310 and include the best way to reach you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She borrowed money to bury her husband. Then the funeral home told her a key document was missing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-193607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-houston-headlines","10":"tag-houston-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}