California family struggling with death of mother, who is very much alive

A Southern California family is living a nightmare, dealing with the death of their 86-year-old mother who is still very much alive, though not according to the U.S. Social Security Administration.  

Sarah Van Leuven, a Santa Monica resident, retired as a special education teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District on April 1, 2016, the same date that SSA lists her as deceased.  

It is unclear exactly how she was declared dead, whether it was human error or a computer glitch, but the mix up has been near catastrophic for the stroke survivor, who has been purged from Medicare and health insurance systems, had her bank and credit cards canceled and had years’ worth of pension payments pulled away overnight.  

They believe the April 1, 2016, retirement milestone might be at the center of the confusion.  

The family was first notified of the issue in 2023 and thought the problem had been resolved until this year when they received another cryptic letter in August from the Social Security Administration that did not mention Sarah’s possible elimination from services like Medicare and health insurance systems.

The lack of information on her, according to the family, suggests she’d never been born. 

Sarah, whose son Jon Van Leuven is her primary caretaker, says much of the stress of the untangling the federal government’s massive error has fallen on him.  

“It’s been quite an ordeal,” she told KTLA’s Chris Wolfe. “Not so much for me but for my children and my son.”  

To make matters worse, the family said they have been dealing with some government employees who do not appear to consider the critical situation urgent.  

“We make a call to Social Security and someone at Social Security says, ‘Well, we see that she’s alive in the main record but there’s this auxiliary record that still shows her as dead,’” Jon explained. “She is currently completely eliminated from the Medicare system, and she has no health insurance. That is life threatening for her. We’re going to deal with all the other stuff when this is dealt with.”  

As for Sarah, she said she doesn’t believe the government has been working expeditiously on the problem and that she’s grateful to have her children taking care of her.  

“I’m really fortunate to have children,” she told KTLA. “Some people in my condition might not have children to help take care of us.”  

The Van Leuven’s have reached out to California’s U.S. Senator Alex Padilla and Congressman Ted Lieu, both of whom have responded to help them get through the morass.  

Still, the family does not know when the issue will be resolved and, Sarah’s daughter, Katie Hood, ventured to guess that they are likely not the only ones in the country going through such a maddening and dangerous ordeal.