Woman can't prove to the government she's not dead

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (WTXF) - Mistakes happen, but one woman is experiencing quite the blunder - and spending lots of time trying to get the government to fix it.

Somehow, the Social Security Administration listed Elizabeth Graham of Bakersfield, Calif., as a dead person, even though she's alive.

A phone call to show the feds she's not dead didn't mend the mix-up.

"You can't make any changes? You cannot show that I'm alive even though I'm talking to you?" she told them.

"We compile this death information into a file known as the death master file, DMF," Graham read from the agency's letter.

Getting off that list is almost as hard as coming back from the dead. Of course, her Social Security payments stopped. Medicare stopped paying her doctors, so they're not happy. And there's lots more.

"I'm getting letters of condolences, my Discover Card was canceled, my American Express, my Costco. I'm trying to get gas in the Costco line and that was denied. They notify all these people," she explained.