OMAHA, Nebraska: A 74-year-old hospice patient in Nebraska declared dead by her nursing home two hours earlier was sent to a funeral home where she was found to be still alive.
However, she died a few hours later after workers at the nursing home started CPR and rushed her to a hospital.
There have been at least two similar incidents at funeral homes in New York and Iowa in the past year and a half.
Chief Deputy Ben Houchin at the Lancaster County Sheriff’s office stated that the woman was declared dead early this week in hospice care at The Mulberry nursing home in the Waverly suburb of Lincoln.
Immediately after placing the woman on the embalming table just before noon at Butherus Maser & Love Funeral Home, workers noticed she was still breathing. After that, she was rushed to Lincoln Hospital, where she died the same afternoon.
The sheriff’s office is investigating, but there was no initial evidence of any laws being broken, Houchin said, adding that he was ready to sign off on her death certificate because her death was expected.
“I am sure the nursing home and everybody is going to be taking a look into what has happened,” AP quoted Houchin as saying. “And I am sure they will look and see if new protocols need to be made or if they were all followed.”
A woman who answered the phone at the nursing home declined to comment.
In the two incidents reported earlier, a woman was declared dead prematurely in New York last year just days after an Iowa nursing home was fined $10,000 for doing the same thing.
Spokeswoman for the National Funeral Directors Association Jessica Koth said the day’s events had to be traumatic on the woman’s family.
“I can imagine how difficult it would be for the family as well to go on such an emotional roller-coaster,” she was quoted as saying.