Nebraska man declared dead found alive in funeral home

A woman in Nebraska who was initially pronounced dead in a nursing home was later found alive at a funeral home, authorities confirmed.

On Monday, an emergency call was received at a funeral home in Waverly, near Lincoln. When staff realized the 74-year-old was still breathing, they performed CPR.

About two hours earlier, Constance Glantz had been pronounced dead 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 on the part of the nursing home.

“This is a very unusual case,” said Chief Deputy Ben Houchin of the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office at a livestreamed press conference.

“I’ve been doing this for 31 years and I’ve never gotten this far.”

A coroner was not sent to the nursing home because Ms. Glantz was in hospice care and the circumstances were outside the scope of a coroner’s jurisdiction, Mr. Houchin told reporters. Ms. Glantz’s death was foreseeable, he said.

In addition, “she had been examined by a doctor within the last seven days who was willing to sign the death certificate and … there were no suspicious events at the time of death.”

The woman’s current condition is unknown. Mr Houchin confirmed that her family had been informed of the situation.

Mr Houchin did not name the homes where the accident occurred, but the BBC has contacted a nursing home and a funeral director named by local media for comment.

Ms. Glantz is not the only person who was declared dead but then turned out to be alive.

In June last year, 76-year-old Bella Montoya was declared dead in Ecuador, presumably suffering from a stroke. She was placed in a coffin and taken to a funeral home for a wake before her burial. She was found alive five hours later after the coffin was opened to change her clothes, but she died a few days later.

Dr Stephen Hughes, lecturer in medicine at the School of Medicine at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford, said such cases were rare but “death is a process”.

“Sometimes it looks like someone is dead, but they are not quite dead,” Dr Hughes told the BBC after the incident in Ecuador. “A careful investigation is necessary.”

Dr Hughes added that doctors would often listen for heart sounds or work of breathing for at least a minute before declaring someone dead, and that some medications could also slow down bodily processes, making it seem like someone has died.