Missouri City man says St. Luke’s Hospital mistakenly sent him sympathy letter for his wife who is still alive

MISSOURI CITY – Three weeks ago, a Missouri City man, Eric Stafford, said he received a letter from Baylor St. Luke’s in the Texas Medical Center from the Director of Spiritual Care.

When he opened the letter and read it, he said he became upset and frustrated.

“I was working out of town and hadn’t talked to my wife in a few days,” Eric said. “I was upset and frustrated, even drew a few tears.”

Stafford said the letter was a sympathy letter from the hospital saying that his wife was dead.

“We wish to express our concern for the death of your wife, and that stopped me right there,” Eric said.

Eric and his wife, Yolanda, have been married for almost 14 years and have two children.

None of what Eric said he was reading inside the letter made sense to him.

“I’m alive. That’s what’s crazy,” Yolanda said.

Yolanda is very much alive and immediately started her mission for answers after reading the letter.

On Monday, she went to St. Luke’s in the Texas Medical Center where she was a patient back in 2018. She said she talked to the chaplain who sent the letter, but said he couldn’t explain what happened.

“If it was that easy for you to send this letter off, it should be easy enough for you to backtrack and find out where did this come from. There may be a death certificate out there somewhere that we need to search and find,” Yolanda said.

St. Luke’s Health sent the following statement regarding the incident:

“The health and safety of our patients is our top priority. St. Luke’s Health is aware of a sympathy letter that was mailed to a family in error. Our staff met with the affected family in person to apologize for the mistake and assured them it is being investigated. We will continue to work with the family and share the investigation’s results with them.”

“I just want to make sure she’s not dead in the system and that we don’t have any future repercussions. If they are pronouncing her dead, then who is really dead? We need to know something,” Eric said.


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