SAN ANTONIO — It's hard to imagine waking up one morning and your partner of 34 years is no longer there. Even harder to imagine you're not allowed to lay them to rest. That's what Tony Conte has been dealing with.
His wife Debra passed away May 25 at the Methodist ER Clinic on Southwest Military. Debra had beaten aggressive cancer, but the chemo and radiation damaged her heart and she occasionally dealt with congestive heart failure.
The morning of May 25, Debra awoke and told Tony she couldn't breathe. He called 911 and paramedics came. They stabilized her and Tony says they told him she was well enough for him to take her to the Methodist ER clinic. Things went downhill from there.
Tony says Debra coded four times... the last time, doctors couldn't save her.
"It was inevitable, to me," says Tony.
He doesn't blame the doctors for Debra's death, but he holds them totally responsible for what happened, or what didn't happen, next. The doctor who called her death refused to sign the death certificate.
Without a death certificate, the State of Texas will not allow a person to be buried or cremated. The family held a service for Debra, but her body was being held in storage until Tony could secure a death certificate.
Six weeks after her death, the doctor who called her death still refused to sign and file her death certificate. Also, her primary care physician wouldn't sign it because he wasn't there when Debra died. Tony had enough... he called KENS.
We reached out to the owners of Brookehill Funeral Home, where Debra was being held. After telling the owners about the situation, they held a three-way conference call with Debra's primary doctor, Tony and themselves. Finally, the doctor agreed to sign and file Debra's death certificate.
The family was allowed to cremate Debra and inter her ashes during a ceremony at Ft. Sam National Cemetery, the morning of July 22... 58 days after she passed.
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