Nationwide — The family of Nancy Young, a 79-year-old mother from Atlanta, Georgia, who died in March 2025, had to wait more than two months for her death certificate. The delay came not from backlogs, but from a doctor who failed to sign the document.
Young died on March 11 inside her Gwinnett County home. Police ruled out foul play, and the medical examiner determined her death was natural. Because she had recently seen a primary doctor for seizures and dementia, Georgia law required that doctor, not the medical examiner, to sign the death certificate within 72 hours.
That did not happen. Instead, weeks passed without progress. Her daughter, Roberta Gardner, was left to chase the paperwork while trying to grieve. “We are also being held responsible for figuring out how to get it and how to get this legal document signed,” she told Atlanta News First.
The delay left Gardner unable to settle legal and financial matters. She described feeling powerless as the puzzle she and her mother had started together before her death remained unfinished.
“I needed to grieve. But I also needed to do the legal things that I needed to do, to make sure the insurance company didn’t come after me, and to begin to close the chapter. I just I couldn’t make those steps,” she said.
State records show the Georgia Composite Medical Board has received dozens of complaints about doctors refusing to sign death certificates. Medical examiners say many physicians wrongly believe they cannot sign if the patient did not die in their hospital, creating more strain on a system already short on staff.
Young’s certificate was finally signed on May 27, more than two months after her death. Gardner described the moment as “an emotional jolt,” saying she had spent so much energy fighting for the document that the finality was overwhelming.
The doctor’s office later claimed it did not receive the paperwork until May 15 and returned it within two weeks. Gardner’s family disputes this, saying they had made repeated calls and visits that went unanswered.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Composite Medical Board says it is now working with state agencies to better educate doctors about their legal duties in such cases. For Gardner, the experience has left a lasting mark. She now visits a park bench where her mother once sat, reflecting on how a routine process turned into a painful fight.