*Madeline-Michelle Carthen may be among the living, but in the eyes of the government, she is no longer with us.
Cauthen, who was wrongfully declared dead more than 16 years ago, is still fighting to prove she is very much alive, according to Madame Noire. The 52-year-old St. Louis, Missouri woman’s dilemma dates to when she prepared to participate in a summer internship in Ghana in 2007. It was then that Carthen, a former Webster University entrepreneur and business technology student, discovered a glaring mistake. Her Social Security number was listed as deceased. On paper, the year of Carthen’s death is listed as 2007.
The impact of the error changed everything for Carthen as she was denied financial aid for the Ghana trip.
During an interview with NBC News affiliate KSDK-TV, Carthen remembered her reaction when she became aware of what happened to her.
“I laughed,” she said. “I said, ‘What do you mean? I’m sitting right here. I’ve been at school for over a year and a half. How am I dead? Is this going to affect my international internship?’”
If you’re wondering how such an error could occur, believe it or not, it happens more than you think. KSDK-TV reported that more than 12,000 Americans are wrongfully listed as deceased by the U.S. government each year.
For Carthen, her Social Security information was accidentally filed in a “deceased warehouse,” according to People. The outlet further stated that Cauthen was listed on the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File, “an internal database that collects records of dead people who have Social Security numbers.”
Tracking its obstructive path, Carthen’s IRS information, bank accounts, and Medicare were canceled after her name was uploaded to the Death Master File. And that doesn’t even include Cauthen getting delisted from the Department of Homeland Security and forced to withdraw from school as well as not being able to maintain employment since the error happened and finding it hard to get housing and vote.
“I’m in Missouri, but I’m back and forth [between here and Tennessee],” she told People earlier this month. “I had to give up my home. I don’t have a place to stay. I can’t get a mortgage.”
To say Carthen has been fighting an uphill battle to get folks to see she is alive and well is a real understatement. The lack of a Social Security number is making it exceedingly difficult for HR companies to process payroll for her.
Under normal circumstances, if a person suspects their Social Security number has been listed as deceased, they can bring an original copy of their passport, driver’s license, or other forms of identification to their local Social Security branch to have the error fixed.
Despite going through the necessary steps, following all the recommended guidelines, and receiving an “erroneous death letter” to show her bank, doctors, and creditors that the death report was an error, Cauthen’s hard work has not made much of an impact.
A legal name change from Madeline Coburn to Madeline-Michelle Carthen and a new Social Security number she received in 2021 still could not fix the issue. Issues with her old Social Security number being tied to her new one continue to persist.
Yet, Carthen remains hopeful that things will work out and that she will get her life back on track without the misperception of her being deceased.
“I don’t know how this is going to work out. I just keep advocating and fighting, and when I say fighting, within my spirit. Sometimes I wanna give up, but my faith is too strong,” Carthen told KSDK-TV in September. “I don’t care if it takes 20 years. I’m going to still do what I got to do to make this situation right, not just for myself but for others.”
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