Franken: Ebola Victim's Widow To Get Benefits
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO/AP) — A Minnesota woman whose husband was the first American to die from Ebola will get survivor benefits, U.S. Sen. Al Franken said Monday.
Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, said the Social Security Administration notified him that the benefits were approved for Decontee Sawyer of Coon Rapids.
Sawyer, 34, has been struggling to get her husband's remains and his death certificate from Nigeria to Minnesota. Sawyer said she could not get Social Security benefits for her family without the death certificate and that the Nigerian government has refused to officially confirm his death.
Sawyer told WCCO that Franken called her Monday morning with the news. The benefits, amounting to $1,900 a month, should start arriving in 10 days, she said.
"I am just so relieved," Sawyer said. "I have been worried about not being able to feed my kids."
Franken said the Social Security Administration told him Monday it would grant Sawyer the benefits without the certificate because the agency now has enough evidence that her husband, Patrick, had died.
"I know these past several months have been hard for her because of her husband's death and the bureaucratic impasse with Nigeria," Franken said in a statement. He said his office will continue to work with the U.S. State Department to secure Patrick Sawyer's remains and death certificate from the Nigerian health ministry.
Decontee Sawyer, who has three daughters ages 6 and 5 years old and 19 months old, said that receiving the survivor benefits is "one less thing" she will have to deal with. She has been working part time at the Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center in St. Cloud.
"It was getting to the point where it's a matter of putting food on the table and putting a roof over our heads," she said.
Patrick Sawyer died of Ebola on July 25 in Nigeria, days after he traveled from his native Liberia, which has been hit hard by the Ebola outbreak.
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