Nebraska woman declared dead, later found alive

(NewsNation) — A Nebraska woman pronounced dead at a nursing home this week was later discovered by a funeral home worker who noticed she was still breathing.

Constance Glantz, 74, was placed in hospice care at Mulberry Nursing Home in Waverly, Nebraska. Nursing home staff said she died at 9:44 a.m. Monday morning and was taken to a funeral home in Lincoln.

Then at 11:45 a.m., Lincoln police and fire departments were dispatched to the funeral home for a “medical emergency,” Ben Houchin, deputy chief of the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, said at a news conference Monday.

An employee who had placed Glantz’s body on a table to begin funeral arrangements noticed that she was breathing and called 911. Funeral home staff performed CPR on Glantz, and she was transported to a local hospital.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office has launched an investigation into the incident but could not determine any criminal intent on the part of the nursing home, Houchin said.

Neither the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office nor the coroner were initially called to the nursing home after staff pronounced Glantz dead because it “did not fall within those parameters,” Houchin explained, because the patient’s death was expected and a doctor had examined her for the past seven days.

In addition, the doctor was willing to sign the death certificate and there were no “suspects” at the time, Houchin said.

“This is a very unusual case,” said Houchin. “I’ve been doing this for 31 years and it’s never gotten this far.”

Mulberry Nursing Home declined to comment when contacted by NewsNation. Houchin said the nursing home and funeral home had been “totally cooperative,” adding that the latter had “done nothing wrong.”

“They were the ones who found out she was still alive,” Houchin said.

On Tuesday, Houchin announced that Glantz officially died at 4 p.m. on Monday at a local hospital.

“I can’t imagine what her family has been through and we are really, really sorry they had to go through that,” Houchin said, referring to the incident that occurred Monday.

He said the sheriff’s office extends its condolences to their families.

An autopsy was performed on Tuesday, but it may take up to 12 weeks for final results to be available.