An 82-year-old woman, a New Yorker. whom Suffolk Country police authorities have not publicly identified was pronounced dead at a nursing home on Long Island, New York, but found to be alive almost three hours later at a funeral home.
County police said the New Yorker was pronounced dead Saturday at the Water’s Edge Rehab and Nursing Center in Port Jefferson at 11:15 a.m. But after being taken to the O.B. Davis Funeral Home in nearby Miller Place at 1:30 p.m., she was found breathing.
New Yorker Returned
Reports from CNN indicated that Suffolk County police and the New York State Department of Health are still investigating the case. The health department cannot comment further because the probe is still ongoing.
The incident has been referred to the New York state attorney general’s office, police said.
“This is an awful situation that caused unnecessary trauma for the impacted resident and her loved ones,” the attorney general’s office said in an emailed statement to CNN, adding that the office is reviewing the incident.
In a statement to WABC, the funeral home said: “Out of respect for the privacy and confidentiality of the families we are honored to serve, we are not in a position to comment further on this matter.”
A similar incident took place in Iowa when a 66-year-old woman was declared dead on January 3 at the Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Special Care Center in Urbandale, Iowa, where she was receiving hospice care.
The New Yorker was placed in a body bag and taken to the Ankeny Funeral Home & Crematory. The funeral home’s staff members then unzipped the body bag to find the woman alive and gasping for air, the New York Times reported,
Way back in 2020, a 20-year-old woman was pronounced dead by firefighters but was found breathing at a Detroit funeral home.
The woman, identified as Timesha Beauchamp by Geoffrey Fieger, her family’s attorney, has cerebral palsy and was hospitalized and in critical condition.
Fieger told CNN affiliate WXYZ, “It’s one of people’s worst nightmares to imagine having an ambulance called and instead, sending you off to a funeral home in a body bag. The funeral home unzips the body bag, literally… and see her alive with her eyes open.”
Southfield’s Fire Chief Johnny Menifee says what happened to Beauchamp is “unsettling,” and pointed out that “there’s evidence out there that this sort of thing has happened before,” referring to other situations where people are discovered to be alive after being pronounced dead.
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