But the plan was derailed after Carthen, formerly Madeline Coburn, tried applying for financial aid to cover the cost of the trip and learned that her social security number identified her as dead.

“I laughed,” Carthen told NBC News. “I said, ‘What do you mean? I’m sitting right here. I’ve been at school over a year and a half. … How am I dead? Is this going to affect my international internship?'”

The 52-year-old woman said school officials told her she couldn’t attend classes until the mistake was fixed. Carthen has also been fired from jobs because of the error.

When she first reported the error to Social Security Administration, Carthen said she was told that her name was mistakenly added to the death master file, a record of people who have died. Officials gave Carthen a death erroneous letter, saying she could present it to credit bureaus to prove she’s still alive.

“Well, it got worse, because it wasn’t creditors,” Carthen said. “Being in the death master file, it went to the IRS, it went to the Department of Homeland Security, it went to E-verify, all of these things. It just started affecting my life.”

Madeline-Michelle Carthen

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