Widowed by Ebola, MN woman fights to claim spouse's Social Security

The Coon Rapids, Minnesota, widow of one of the first Americans to die of Ebola says she and her children cannot get Social Security benefits because the government of Nigeria, where Patrick Sawyer died, is refusing to officially confirm his death.

Sawyer came to the U.S. about 15 years ago from his native Liberia, said his wife, Decontee Sawyer. He got a master's degree at St. Mary's University, worked as a group home manager, got married and had three kids.

Sawyer went back to Liberia's capital, Monrovia, in 2008 and had been travelling between Minnesota and his homeland for years.

"He felt so passionately about Liberia, and really wanted to be part of rebuilding the country," said Decontee Sawyer, who came to the U.S. from Liberia as a child. "We had had a 14-year civil war and everything was destroyed."

• More MPR News Ebola coverage

Patrick Sawyer went to work for the steel giant ArcelorMittal and even led a finance ministry delegation to a conference in Nigeria in July. But he got sick at the airport in Lagos and later died. Nigerian press reports say he infected a dozen Nigerians with Ebola.

But the Nigerian government isn't releasing a death certificate. And that's a problem for the Sawyer family.

Decontee Sawyer said Social Security officials found her husband's records, showed her what benefits her daughters, ages 19 months, 5 and 6, would be eligible for and got her paperwork in order. But there was a catch: They needed a death certificate.

She asked the hospital in Lagos, Nigeria for the document. She contacted the Liberian finance minister, who she said had become a friend of her husband. But she got nothing back: Not her husband's cremated remains. Not a death certificate. Not his health records.

Decontee Sawyer believes Nigerian officials blame her husband for the outbreak in their country and the deaths that followed. At a conference in August, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan called Sawyer a "crazy man" for traveling to Nigeria and bringing Ebola with him.

"They are angry at Patrick. And so that anger is still there, even though he's dead now," she said.

A Social Security spokeswoman in Chicago says the agency can't discuss details of specific cases. But officials here in Minnesota are hopeful that they can move the process forward, even from thousands of miles away.

Marc Kimball, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Al Franken, said Franken's office is on the case.

"Sen. Franken has had his staff working with the State Department to get Mr. Sawyer's remains and his death certificate out of Nigeria as quickly as possible," he said.

But Kimball said they have renewed the push for a response from Nigeria.

"We are encouraged that today, the U.S. Consulate in Nigeria sent the Nigerian ministry of health a diplomatic note, asking them to give this case the highest priority," he said.

In the meantime, Decontee Sawyer is trying to keep her family together. She works part time at the Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center in St. Cloud, and says she's struggling financially since her husband died in July.

"My heart goes out to...all the families that have lost a loved one to Ebola," she said. "I'm one of those people."