The woman was pronounced dead after an employee at the senior centre "did not feel a pulse" and found the "resident was not breathing at that time."
In a strange incident, a woman "gasped" back to life while she was being transported to a funeral home in a body bag, hours after being pronounced dead.
A hospice facility in Iowa has been fined $10,000 after it wrongfully pronounced a woman dead, hours before she was found gasping for air inside a body bag at a funeral home, per NBC. According to a report released on Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, a nurse at the Glen Oaks Alzheimer's Special Care Center in Urbandale found no signs of life at about 6 a.m., and determined that the 66-year-old woman had passed away on January 3.
Soon after 7:30 a.m., a funeral director arrived, and the resident was placed in a body bag before being carried away. The bag was then opened by workers at Ankeny Funeral Home and Crematory at 8:26 a.m. According to the report, they "observed (the resident's) chest moving and she gasped for air."
Woman declared dead later found still alive in body bag inside funeral home https://t.co/PHrCkIPbtw pic.twitter.com/kVtJusNUxE
— azfamily 3TV CBS 5 (@azfamily) February 2, 2023
According to the report, the woman's "mouth was open, her eyes were fixed, and there were no breath sounds," and a nurse was unable to find the woman's pulse using her stethoscope. The nurse placed her palm on the woman's abdomen and "noted no movement." According to the report, the nurse informed the on-call hospice nurse and a family member after assuming the patient had passed away. "Hospice agreed to call the funeral home and did so," it says, per CBS.
The woman's body was placed on a gurney "inside a cloth bag and zipped it shut" about an hour and forty minutes later. About ten minutes later, according to the claim, the director and the woman left. The woman was discovered to be alive by the funeral home personnel just before 8:30 a.m.
“Funeral home staff unzipped the bag and observed Resident #1's chest was moving and she was gasping for air. The funeral home then called 911 and hospice,” the report says.
EMS staff saw the woman had no eye movement, verbal or vocal response, or motor response when they arrived. They also recorded the woman's pulse. The woman was brought to the hospital's emergency room. She was then brought back to the hospice facility where she passed away two days later surrounded by her loved ones, per PEOPLE.
A representative for the state Department of Inspections and Appeals shared that the state fined the facility $10,000, the highest permitted by Iowa law. According to a state citation from Wednesday, the institution failed to ensure she received "dignified treatment and care at end of life" and "failed to provide adequate direction to ensure appropriate cares and services were provided."
The 66-year-old patient was placed in a zipped body bag and taken to the funeral where workers found that she was breathing and called 911. https://t.co/w1Z8udPpgA
— HuffPost Weird News (@HuffPostWeird) February 3, 2023
The executive director of the hospice facility said that a representative had spoken to the resident's relatives. “We care deeply for our residents and remain fully committed to supporting their end-of-life care,” Executive Director Lisa Eastman said in a statement. “All employees undergo regular training so they can best support end-of-life care and the death of our residents.”
References:
https://people.com/human-interest/woman-found-alive-and-gasping-for-air-in-body-bag/
Cover Image Source: Youtube | KCCI
