A study released in August 2016 painted a pretty grim picture of how likely pregnant women in Texas were to die while carrying a baby or within a few months of giving birth.

The statewide maternal death rate in 2012 was nearly double what it was the two years prior, the study found. Texas' rates were deemed "the highest in the developed world" and headlines referred to the surge as both "alarming" and "unbelievable.

Indeed, the findings sent shock waves through the medical community and prompted the Texas legislature to vote in a special session last year to extend the timeline and duties of an obstetrics and gynecology task force.

The disturbing numbers also baffled Texans.

"It just seemed to be this anomaly," said Morris Fried, a Richardson resident who recently submitted a question to Curious Texas, a Dallas Morning News ongoing project that allows you to join in our reporting process

The concept is simple: our journalists track down the answers to questions that you submit. Fried wanted to know why the rates in Texas are so bad.

"How can we talk about how great Texas is when it's at the bottom of this very important category?" Morris Fried asked.

But the answer to his question may be equally as frustrating as the 2016 study findings.

“The data that the 2012 high mortality rate was based on was incorrect and inflated,” said Natalie Archer, a medical research specialist and epidemiologist with the Texas Department of State Health Services.

In a separate study published earlier this year, she and colleagues aimed to get to the bottom of the spike in 2012, when maternal death rates in Texas were said to be 38.4 per 100,000 women.

“We found the true rate to be less than half of that,” Archer said. The state’s investigation used a more extensive method to evaluate the numbers.

One of the reasons they for the issue, they found, was due to changes in a drop down menu on an electronic autopsy report data-entry system. Medical examiners, doctors and justices of the peace who certify deaths could accidentally check the wrong box on the form. For example, women who had died were sometimes erroneously labeled as pregnant when they were not.

"The data that the 2012 high mortality rate was based on was incorrect and inflated," Natalie Archer of the Texas Department of State Health Services.

But that’s not all.

The state’s findings also raised questions about the main method used to track maternal deaths nationwide. Other states’ data may also be incorrect, said DSHS epidemiologist and lead study author Sonia Baeva. Texas has changed how it will track the deaths looking forward.

"Oh my. You've got to follow the facts to where they lead you," said Fried when The Dallas Morning News called him at home to inform him of the findings published in May.

Though elated that Texas was redeemed, more can always be done, he said. And the state agrees.

“I don't want anybody to think it's not a problem. Because it still is. And it's something we're still rallying people around and that we'll be addressing as a state,” said Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the state health department.

"A death record is a legal document, but also an incredibly important public health document," he said. "So the more we know about why and how people die, the more we can understand how to prevent death or improve quality of life."

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