Linda Medlock's husband Raymond died suddenly on Feb. 11, but it wasn't until May 3 that the state's chief medical investigator, Dr. Ross Zumwalt, could sign the death certificate the Bloomfield woman needed to get on with her life, the Farmington Daily Times reported.

"My husband worked for the Bureau of Land Management, so he had death benefits, but they were put on hold until I had a death certificate," Medlock told the Daily Times. "Our vision and dental insurance were canceled."

That meant a stress-caused cracked molar had to be paid out of her own pocket, and relatives who flew to attend her husband's funeral were unable to get bereavement discounts because airlines require some proof of death, Medlock told the paper.

"I had no income, and the situation put stress on my family," the widow said.

So, what happened?

After weeks of unsuccessful attempts to find out the reason for the delay at the state Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque, Medlock finally contacted the office of Gov. Bill Richardson in desperation, the Daily Times reported.

A phone call from a staffer at the Governor's Office on May 1 finally got the ball rolling at the OMI, the paper said.

"I got the case file and gave it to Dr. Reichert (investigator Ross Reichert) as soon as the governor's office called me," OMI associate director Tim Stepetic told the Daily Times. "I wish I'd known about it before."

Reichert processed the case and handed to Zumwalt on May 3, the paper said.

"This is unfortunate, and all I can do is apologize to her," said Zumwalt.

OMI officials told the Daily Times that the delay came about because Dr. Patty McFeeley, the medical investigator who was assigned the case, has worked only one-quarter of the time since 2007 and is close to full retirement.

About 30 cases were stacked up, untouched, on McFeeley's desk, and no one at OMI told Medlock about the problem or referred her to another investigator, nor had anyone alerted office supervisors to the problem, the Daily Times reported.

"We will go through Dr. McFeeley's cases and see what's up," Stepetic told the Daily Times. "The system should have caught this."

Stepetic also told the paper that his office will investigate what went wrong in Medlock's case and take whatever action is necessary to prevent a future occurrence. 

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