A Nebraska woman who was initially pronounced dead at a nursing home was later found alive at a funeral home, authorities confirmed.
On Monday, staff at a funeral home in Waverley, near Lincoln, called an emergency number and found the 74-year-old still breathing and performed CPR.
Constance Glantz was pronounced dead about two hours earlier by staff at a nearby nursing home.
She was taken to a local hospital. Police are investigating the incident but say they have found no evidence of criminal intent at the nursing home.
“This is a very unusual case,” Chief Deputy Ben Houchin of the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office said during a live news conference.
“We’ve been doing this for 31 years and we’ve never had anything like this before.”
Houchin told reporters the coroner was not sent to a nursing home because Ms Glantz had been placed in a hospice and the situation did not fall within the coroner’s remit. He explained that Ms. Glantz’s death was expected.
Furthermore, “she was seen by a doctor within the past seven days who was willing to sign the death certificate and…there was nothing suspicious at the time of death.”
The woman’s current condition is unknown. Mr Houchin confirmed her family had been informed of the situation.
Mr Houchin did not name the house at the center of the incident, but the BBC has asked the nursing home and funeral home named by local media for comment.
Ms. Glantz is not the only person who has been pronounced dead only to find out she is still alive.
Last June, 76-year-old Bella Montoya in Ecuador was pronounced dead after suffering a suspected stroke. She was placed in a coffin and taken to a funeral home for a vigil before burial. Five hours later, after opening the coffin and changing clothes, it was discovered that she was still alive. However, she did die a few days later.
In 2018, a South African woman was initially pronounced dead following a traffic accident Found alive in a morgue refrigerator.
Dr Stephen Hughes, senior lecturer in medicine at Anglia Ruskin University’s Chelmsford School of Medicine, said the condition was rare but “dying is a process”.
“Sometimes, some people may look dead, but they are not quite dead,” Dr Hughes told the BBC after the Ecuador incident. “Careful examination is necessary.”
Dr. Hughes added that doctors often check for heart sounds or difficulty breathing for at least a minute before declaring someone dead, and some medications also slow body processes to give the appearance of death.
