(DeKalb County IN) -  When Tony Williams' father passed away in August, the La Porte man says he was prepared for the death, but not the diagnosis. Williams says his father’s death was falsely attributed to COVID-19 and now he’s speaking out about it.

 

Williams says his elderly father suffered many long-term health problems before passing away in a nursing home in DeKalb County.  But when Williams looked at the death certificate, he was shocked to see COVID-19 as the cause.  "[His death] was an expected thing," Williams says, "He lived much longer than what I ever dreamed he would.  He did have a lot of health issues, but COVID-19 wasn't one of them."

 

Williams says his father was never even tested.  After several interventions by the nursing home and a funeral home, Williams says the certificate was corrected.  But now he wonders how many other recorded COVID deaths are legitimate.  He says the funeral home that cared for his father told him they had seen several other questionable diagnoses.

 

According to multiple area funeral home directors, this has also allegedly happened in La Porte County.  The problem, they say, is that funeral homes, as well as health department officials, rely only on the numbers they’re given by the doctors who certify the deaths.

 

La Porte County Commissioner and physician, Dr. Vidya Kora, says he is not aware of any erroneous COVID death reports. "The person who is certifying, whether it's the attending physician or the coroner, it is frankly their responsibility to make it clear whether it is a confirmed case of COVID or a probable case," Kora says, "And it's not that difficult... we've been doing this for several months."

 

Kora says all the COVID deaths he has certified have been lab-confirmed,  but he will look into the possibility of errors in other reports.  He encourages any families who doubt a COVID death certificate to take it up with the attending physician.

 

Williams is glad he took action and hopes others will do the same. "Most people just don't want to make waves. Even if they notice it, they just don't want to take the time to correct it," he says, "I hope that more people are willing to step forward, because unless somebody does say something, nothing is going to change."