‘Messes up my life': How a typo led to a Maryland woman being declared dead

A Maryland woman trying to renew her driver’s license was turned away because she’d been declared dead, driving her into the painstaking process of bringing herself back to life.

Nicole Paulino of Gaithersburg was shocked by what popped up in the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration’s system in November.

“It then appears that I am deceased,” she said. “I got a little frightened, I’m not gonna lie, and surprised, because I am alive. I’m here.”

The MVA told Paulino they couldn’t renew her license, she said.

She also got a letter from the IRS saying “deceased taxpayer.”

Health insurance was canceled for Paulino and her three kids. Medical bills are piling up, and she can’t get the inhaler she needs for her asthma.

“This really, really messes up my life,” Paulino said.

“It has affected me a lot,” she said, tearfully.

News4 reached out to various Maryland government agencies to figure out how this could have happened.

Then Paulino got a call from Social Security, she said. They told her the mistake was due to a typo.

According to the representative, a funeral home tried to report someone else dead but got a digit wrong in the Social Security number, submitting Paulino’s number instead.

“It’s affected my health, my mental health and …” she trailed off, crying.

The Social Security Administration sent News4 a statement saying its records are highly accurate and of the more than 3 million death reports they receive each year, less than one-third of one percent are subsequently corrected.

Meaning about 10,000 reports are wrong each year.

“This happens almost on a daily basis,” attorney Joseph McClelland told the News4 I-Team in 2022.

He’s built a business out of bringing people back from the dead.

“The impact is the worst impact you can have on your credit report,” he said.

A Prince George’s County family felt that impact two years ago when 13-year-old Elise Allen was declared dead. 

“It sounds crazy, me on the phone arguing with somebody trying to explain to them that my daughter is not dead,” Melissa Allen told News4 in 2023.

Darby Nye of Arlington, Virginia, was declared dead in 2021, alive in 2022, then dead again in 2023. It impacted his insurance and pension.

Paulino said that after News4 got involved, she finally got a letter from the Social Security Administration Wednesday saying she’s officially been brought back to life.

“I tried doing it myself and I didn’t get anything resolved,” she said. “If it wasn’t for NBC news that offered to help me, I would have never gotten this problem resolved.”

Social Security says anyone mistakenly declared dead should contact them as soon as possible so they can take immediate action. You’ll have to provide at least one form of current identification.

And make sure you get that letter confirming you’re alive in order to fix all the other issues the mistake caused.

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