No Death Certificate Issued

[stellarformation]

My grandma passed away six months ago, RIP Babciu Stacey, and one month after her death we realized that no death certificate was ever issued. In early September she suffered a massive stroke which landed her in intensive care at Rush Medical Center in Chicago for about a month and a half. After several surgeries, she was showing signs of improvement. She was able to utter a few words, understand when being spoken to, and able to stand with assistance. But after being told that she will never be strong enough to be able to live at home again (she lived with my parents), they moved her to a nursing home. Four days later she was found unresponsive, rushed to the emergency room, and pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Her funeral services were a week later. The funeral director stated several times not to worry about payment for the services until he received the death certificate. My parents waited weeks for him to call saying that he received the certificate. At first he said that there were complications in obtaining it because no one would sign it. The people at the nursing home wouldn't...the emergency people wouldn't. But he said he would take care of it. Several weeks after that, my parents went ahead and paid to avoid high interest rates without a certificate. Many calls and messages where left to the director, who did not respond until my father asked our paster to call him to see what was going on. He again promised to fax us proof that he filed a request for the certificate, which he again broke.

After doing some minimal research (thanks google) I discovered that it is illegal to bury a body without a death certificate. I don't know if that is the law in Illinois, or if any of my research was reliable. I'm not even sure if this is an issue with the doctors/nursing home or the funeral director. I might even be posting this in the wrong section! Either way, my family is stuck on what we should do. How important is it to have a death certificate and what is it actually used for? Any advice?

 

[army judge]

If the death occurred in Cook County, you might find this website useful:

http://www.cookcountygov.com/portal/server.pt/community/medical_examiner,_office_of/307

Every county in Illinois has a medical examiner or coroner (or some similar official).

If you look for that official in the county where your relative expired, you might gain some insight into the process.

I don't know why there is a hold up in your case, but why not speak to an official at the hospital where she expired?