DOUAI, France — Her mother’s death had been expected. Terminally ill with breast cancer, she lay in a medical bed in her living room, visited daily by a nurse.

But when Sandra Lambryczak’s 80-year-old mother died earlier this year, in the predawn hours of a Saturday morning, the daughter suddenly discovered a growing problem in France’s medical system: By law, the body couldn’t be moved until the death was certified by a medical doctor, but a shortage of personnel can sometimes force families to keep their deceased loved ones at home for hours or even days.

“Madame, there’s nobody on weekends, there’s no doctor,” she was told when she called the emergency services. “I pleaded, ‘This can’t be true. We can’t leave a body until Monday morning.’”

She turned off the heaters and flung open the windows. Police officers came, followed by the mayor of Monchecourt, the local municipality, solicitous but powerless in finding a doctor. Only half a day later, after her mother’s nurse was able to locate her personal physician, was the body allowed to be taken to the funeral home.