The family of a deceased South Carolina grandmother is asking for answers after they say officials have “COVID-19 complications” on the death certificate – despite the grandmother never testing positive for the virus.
Kimberly Klosterman told WIS-TV that her 79-year-old grandmother Joan Hill died on July 31 after suffering from dementia for years. Hill moved into the home of her daughter, Klosterman’s mother, in January and received in-home hospice care, according to WIS.
Upon receiving Hill’s death certificate, her family was shocked – it mentioned both Alzheimer’s disease and COVID-19 complications as the cause of death.
But that is not correct, the family told WIS. This is because Hill has never tested positive for coronavirus, nor has she ever exhibited symptoms of the virus.
“That was wrong. She had never been tested before or after death, so I was not sure how that could even be mentioned on her death certificate,” Klosterman explained. “She was breathing fine; that was the last thing for her. Her lung function was good until the very end, so there were zero symptoms of COVID.”
Richter County Coroner Gary Watts, who was called in to respond to Hill’s death, said there should be answers as to why COVID-19 was named on the death certificate.
“When you (WIS) contacted me it was the first time we were made aware that something had been reported to COVID,” Watts said. “When we originally took the call, it was a patient with Alzheimer’s – nothing was mentioned about COVID-19 at the time.”
“It is certainly something that needs to be answered about why that happened, and who made that decision, and why that decision was made when there was no indication at the time of death,” he added. “I think the family deserves an answer. I think we all deserve an answer.”
Watts told WIS that a hospice doctor was responsible for mentioning Hill’s cause of death.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control declined to say whether Hill’s death was recorded in the state COVID-19 death toll, citing privacy laws.
When Klosterman reached out to the DHEC for answers, the agency told her to contact Amedisys, the hospice organization that cared for her grandmother. Amedisys claimed that its employees “act in accordance with the Coroner’s Office and follow clinical protocols.”
Klosterman told WIS, “I’m aware that COVID is real. I have known people who have had it, who have been hospitalized for it, who have died there.”
“But to return a report and say that this is where my grandmother died when she was never even tested, had no symptoms, it’s just devastating,” she told WIS.
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