Milla Mariel Edwardson (33) was “erased from the world” by a typographical error.
- Milla Marielle Edvardsen (33) was mistakenly pronounced dead at an emergency room in Halton due to a typographical error.
- He lost access to his bank account, mobile subscription, Vipps and BankID due to the error.
- Halton Municipality has apologized for the serious mistake and says it is reviewing its procedures.
On Easter evening, an email arrives. The message read: “We have received notification from the tax agency that Milla Mariel Edwardson has passed away”.
On the other side sits Milla – alive.
– This is an unwanted email to receive. I have read many times, she tells VG.
The sender is Digipost, a digital mail system developed by Posten. The email stated that the email account would no longer be forwarded to and all correspondence and files received would be deleted.
– I thought it was a scam. So I started Googling to see if more people had been exposed to the same thing, but to no avail, says the 33-year-old.
She didn’t understand anything, didn’t know what to do – everything was closed at Easter. On the Tuesday after the Easter break, Milla called Digipost to find out what had happened.
When she caught up with them, they denied the email was a scam. That’s when she understood.
– The ball rolls a long way in those days. I was erased from the world.
She had to get gift cards for food because her bank account was unavailable and her mobile operator terminated her phone plan.
Milla also lost access to:
- Oops
- Bank Id
- Hygiene
- tax authority
- National Register
- Digipost
serious
The error occurred during an appointment he received at the emergency department in Halton on Good Friday.
In most Norwegian municipalities, doctors log into the national system when a death needs to be reported electronically.
Here, the doctor manually enters the birth and social security number once.
– In this process, a serious deviation occurred due to human error. For that we apologize in the strongest terms, Solfrid Ramdahl, manager of the health center division in Halten municipality, tells VG.
The doctor should record the actual death. But entered an incorrect eleven-digit birth and social security number.
A lot of disappointment
It took a long time to access everything again. The municipality helped correct errors in several institutions, including the population register.
The agencies that Milla invited her to have a big question mark over the whole thing.
– I understand that they are stunned when a dead person calls in and tells them they are alive. Who should they trust? The National Registry or me? This is a ridiculous position.
Everything is running now, but the 33-year-old can’t rest just yet. She hopes that there will be no further problems.
– There has been a lot of frustration, anger and tears. I look forward to seeing if something new suddenly pops up that needs to be corrected.
Milla understands that it is possible to make mistakes. At the same time, she doesn’t believe the municipality’s procedures are adequate.
– When something like this happens, it is clear that their system is not working optimally. I don’t think this is possible.
The Halton emergency room had never experienced a similar situation before. They say they will conduct a thorough review of procedures to see if they can reduce the risk of similar errors occurring in the future.
The municipality understands that the situation is difficult.
– Sorry for the serious error. That’s why we try to follow it in the right way, says Ramthal.
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