BY DANIEL VICTOR
Of The Patriot-News
On Tuesday, Kathryn Leitzell, 61, opened the envelope from the U.S. Social Security Administration and read the disappointing news:
She is dead.
Yet she feels very much alive. She rides her exercise bike every day, she put up Easter decorations for her grandchildren in the Swatara Twp. home she’s lived in for 39 years, and it would be difficult to read the letter if she were dead.
So she was pretty sure there was some kind of mistake. But two days later, she still wasn’t able to confirm with the Social Security office how the mistake happened — or how to fix it.
And the earliest she was able to set up a phone interview is April 16. So for now, she is likely to remain dead in the eyes of the U.S. government.
May she rest on her couch in peace.
Luckily, her grandchildren were not convinced by the government’s legal documentation.
“Grandma, you’re still alive. You’re still here,” 10-year-old Madison reassured her.
Leitzell and her family have maintained a sense of humor about the mixup, but she fears more serious repercussions.
Her husband, Michael Leitzell, died of bladder cancer March 15. Retired from her job as a teacher’s aide for special education at Swatara Middle School, she has multiple sclerosis and lives in her home by herself, supported by their two pensions and Social Security checks.
But dead people don’t get Social Security checks.
Though her home is paid off, she still needs income, and she doesn’t know whether the mistake will lead to withheld payments.
“This is just one more headache on top of all these other things,” she said.
Social Security officials declined to comment on Leitzell’s case, citing privacy requirements. But Aidan Diviny, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration’s Philadelphia office, said human error from many sources can lead to such incidents.
“It’s something that happens periodically, and when it does happen, we react very quickly to try and correct the situation for the person,” Diviny said.
The error is sometimes caused by an employee making a typo while inputting a Social Security number.
Diviny said officials have been fighting another common cause: A Medicare form filled out at hospitals that puts two versions of DOD — date of discharge and date of death — close to each other.
When there’s a false report of death, the mistake can be devastating, he said. Banks are notified of the supposed death, and they in turn can notify other companies or halt direct deposits such as pension benefits.
Prescription refills could be denied to someone on Medicare once records say the patient is dead, he said.
If people such as Leitzell encounter problems while waiting for officials to fix the mistake, the office can provide letters explaining the situation and taking the blame, Diviny said.
Leitzell likely won’t have to wait until her scheduled April 16 phone interview. Soon after reporters called Social Security offices Thursday, Leitzell was besieged with helpful phone calls, she said. One of them came from U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr.’s office.
Her only focus is on keeping the home where she raised her family. It’s a great place to be a grandmother, with a refrigerator front full of crayon drawings dedicated to her.
There’s no free space on her walls, which are packed with crosses, artwork and photos of her family. She leaves the back door open so the ambient sound of a waterfall in the yard soothes the living room, too.
She gets around with a walker and a cane, but she plans to stay in the home as long as possible.
Her son, Adam Leitzell, 39, has been helping her make calls to legally resurrect her. A Swatara Twp. police officer, Leitzell said he was shocked that a mistake like this could happen.
“Initially, it’s funny to some extent,” he said. “But at the same time, when it’s you going through it and it’s a source of income, it’s not so funny if that gets cut off.”