Constance Glantz, Lincoln, Nebraska 74 year old woman pronounced dead at nursing home only to be found breathing when taken to the funeral home as authorities now investigate.
A 74-year-old woman thought to be dead was found breathing after being transported to a funeral home in Nebraska.
Constance Glantz, 74, had been pronounced dead Monday morning at the Lincoln nursing home where she’d been in hospice care before being transferred to the Butherus-Maser & Love Funeral Home, according to ABC News.
But as a funeral home worker tended to her body just before noon, they noticed her breathing and staff immediately began performing CPR and called authorities.
What went wrong?
During a Monday press conference the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office described how the woman was nearly buried alive.
‘This is a very unusual case,’ Lancaster County Sheriff Chief Deputy Ben Houchin told reporters. ‘Been doing this 31 years, and nothing like this has ever gotten to this point before.’
‘She was taken to a local hospital, and is still alive,’ Houchin said of Glantz.
‘LSO has been to the nursing home, and we have started our investigation into what happened. At this point, we have not been able to find any criminal intent by the nursing home, but the investigation is ongoing,’ he continued.
According to Houchin, the sheriff’s department had not been dispatched earlier that day when staff at The Mulberry nursing home in Waverly thought Glantz had died — authorities were only called once the funeral home staff member realized she was still breathing.
‘It did not fall into those parameters for them to have to call us to have to do a coroner investigation,’ Houchin explained. ‘Those are ‘a death of a patient whose death is anticipated,’ which this was, and a physician had seen her in the last seven days, and the physician was willing to sign the death certificate, and that there was nothing suspicious at the time of the death.’
‘All of those fit,’ Houchin said of why his deputies were not initially dispatched to the nursing home.
Houchin confirmed that ‘at least one nurse’ was with Glantz before a funeral home employee discovered her to be still breathing. The official also said there are usually two people present to transport the body, while saying he was unsure ‘how many people had done that part of it.’
It remained unclear if the nursing home would now face censure.
‘We have not been able to find any criminal intent by the nursing home but the investigation is ongoing,’ Houchin reiterated.
