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State Department of Health Sends Letters To Deceased Children

Last updated on Sunday, September 23, 2012

(GREENWOOD). - Parents receiving notification from the Indiana State Department of Health concerning their deceased children are upset.

ISDH sent out 43,000 letters to parents of children notifying them that their children were behind on required immunizations.

But the mailing list included several parents of children who had died, including Linda Luong of Greenwood, who lost her son, Luke, in August 2010 to a chromosomal abnormality.

The Indiana State Department of Health is the same agency that handles death certificates.

Luong shared her story on Facebook and found other grieving Hoosier parents from a support group who mistakenly received the same immunization letter.

The Indiana State Department of Health is not commenting on the incidents. A statement did not acknowledge a mistake.

"The data was matched against Indiana death records three times prior to mailing," the statement from ISDH spokeswoman Amy Reel read. "Through that process, over 300 children's names were excluded from the mailing of approximately 43,000."

It's unclear how many families received letters for deceased children.

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