A woman is left with “no peace” after her father’s death certificate stated he died of the coronavirus despite previously testing negative and an MRI test showing he suffered multiple strokes.
Jay Smith died on July 12 in San Antonio, Texas, after an MRI showed brain damage from enduring multiple strokes. Kayla Smith, however, said last week that her father’s death certificate listed him as a coronavirus victim.
“They put him as COVID. He didn’t have COVID. He had a stroke,” she said. “The MRI showed that he had multiple strokes in the brain, and also he had a blood clot. Those multiple strokes caused so much damage in his brain that it caused damage in his body.”
Jay Smith was first taken to the hospital on July 6, where he tested negative for the coronavirus and was transferred to a non-COVID floor on July 7, according to local outlet KATU.
“It looked like as if my dad had a stroke. The right side of his face was all droopy,” his daughter said.
After his death, Kayla Smith picked up her father’s ashes and noticed his death certificate listed him as a coronavirus victim and that he had the virus for seven days before dying. His family said they were never told he tested positive for the virus.
“I want to know what he really had, and if [he] didn’t have COVID, fix it,” Smith said. “If you can’t get answers, I have no peace. I can’t grieve.”
The confusion over Smith’s cause of death follows an investigation in Florida that found several deaths were wrongly attributed to the coronavirus, including a man who died after suffering a gunshot wound to the head. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield also agreed earlier this summer that hospitals have a monetary incentive to overcount coronavirus victims.
“I think you’re correct in that we’ve seen this in other disease processes, too. Really, in the HIV epidemic, somebody may have a heart attack but also have HIV — the hospital would prefer the [classification] for HIV because there’s greater reimbursement,” Redfield said during a House panel hearing Friday when asked by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer about potential “perverse incentives.”
