Imagine going about your day running errands before being told you're dead...
Well, that's what happened to Nicole Paulino when she went to renew her driver's license in November.
The mother-of-three, from Maryland, US, wasn't able to be registered in the system as she was legally declared dead, as she damningly told NBC4 Washington: "It appears that I am deceased."
It's a surreal thing to experience, so you can forgive Paulino for admitting she felt a 'little frightened' by everything as she is, indeed, alive.
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As a result of this, her health insurance was cancelled not just for her, but her three children, as medical bills started rolling in and she was unable to get her asthma inhaler.
“This really, really messes up my life,” Paulino admitted, though she soon found out how a mistake like this happened.
Apparently, it was all because of a typo, after someone at a funeral home reported someone dead and got a digit wrong in the Social Security number, accidentally keying in Paulino's and registering her as deceased.
In an interview with NBC4 about the situation, she emotionally admitted: “It’s affected my health, my mental health and,” before tailing off and breaking down into tears.
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The massive legal blunder was confirmed when she got a letter from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which stated she was now a 'deceased taxpayer'.
After discovering the issue in November, she said the government took two months to declare her as 'alive' again, making the move on 14 January 2025 after the Social Security Administration (SSA) said it was a clerical error.
When contacted by NBC4, the SSA stated its records on file are 'highly accurate'.
In a statement provided to the news outlet, it explained: "Of these millions of death reports we receive each year, less than one-third of one percent are subsequently corrected."
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But according to NBC4, this means there are around 10,000 false reports every year, as there have been similar instances in the past where people have been wrongly declared dead.
Attorney Joseph McClelland toldz NBC4 in 2022: “This happens almost on a daily basis,” as he helps to 'bring people back from the dead' by helping with their cases.
“The impact is the worst impact you can have on your credit report,” he admitted.
Joshua Nair