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An Iowa woman who was declared dead was found alive and 'gasping for air' inside a body bag right before her funeral was set to take place.
The 66-year-old Alzheimer's patient was admitted to the care facility in 2021 due to dementia.
According to reports, on January 3 a staff member who had just gotten off a 12-hour shift checked in on the woman and noted that "she did not feel a pulse, and the resident was not breathing at that time”.
Then, a nurse came to check on her. “At 6:00 a.m. Resident #1’s mouth was open, her eyes were fixed, and there were no breath sounds,” the report stated, noting that even a stethoscope couldn’t locate her “apical pulse”.
After finding no movement of the abdomen, the nurse determined that the woman had “passed away” and because she had a do not resuscitate order, the nurse contacted her family and a funeral home, according to CNN.
Once the funeral director arrived, they zipped up the patient in a body bag.
“At approximately 8:26 a.m., funeral home staff unzipped the bag and observed Resident #1’s chest moving and she gasped for air,” according to a report by the Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals (DIA).
Emergency services were called, and the patient was taken to the hospital where she later died.
The resident "passed away at the facility with hospice and her family at her side", the DIA said.
Although the patient’s family do not want to push criminal charges against the care facility, they were fined $10,000 for not providing adequate direction and care to the patient.
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