Swedish Woman Told She Had Been Dead for 10 Days

A Swedish woman received a letter from her insurance company informing her that she had been dead for ten days. Susanne Hemphälä, who is 36 year old and from Sandviken, Sweden received that letter last week according to the Arbetarbladet newspaper.

The letter was addressed to the manager of her estate, and she became aware of it when her husband, Mattias telephoned her at work to tell her she was dead. Susanne then called her insurance company who told her they get information directly from the Swedish Tax Office. 

Amazingly, when she logged onto the tax office site she discovered she was believed dead and had even been issued with the death certificate. Suzanne said: “They said I was deceased and the date of death was 20th April, i.e. ten days earlier. How I had died was not stated. 

“I was shocked. It wasn’t pleasant at all, I couldn’t believe it. I could not sleep, was I still a guardian for my children? What would happen if I got sick? Do I exist?”

She then asked the Tax Office if they could find her in the paperwork: “But I got no answer because they said they could not access any records.”

To make matters worse, when she got the letter it was a public holiday in Sweden so it took several days for Suzanne to begin the process of being recognised as alive. So far she has convinced her insurance company but it is still unclear whether the Tax Office agrees. 

It is believed that a local doctor accidentally got her mixed up with another patient, who had died in a nearby old people’s home.