Staff at the Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Special Care Center in Iowa declared a 66-year-old woman dead and had her transported to a funeral home.
The Care Center was fined $10,000 by the Iowa State Department of Health after the woman was found to be alive.
The Iowa Inspection and Appeals Department reported that when the staff at the funeral home opened the woman’s body bag, they found her alive and gasping for air. They immediately called the Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Special Care Center and 911.
The woman had been admitted to the Care Center in December 2021, diagnosed with depression, early-onset dementia, and anxiety. She was put on hospice in December 2022, suffering from advanced brain degeneration. She was treated with lorazepam for anxiety and morphine for pain.
According to a nurse’s notes, the resident appeared calm and comfortable, but she refused to come out of her room and eat. The following week, the nurse noted the woman’s temperature had declined and that she was not speaking or responding. The woman also reportedly suffered minor seizures.
Soon after, a worker at the Care Center found the resident had no pulse and wasn’t breathing. A licensed nurse declared her dead.
The patient’s family was called and a nurse called the funeral home.
A funeral home staffer arrived at the Care Center about an hour and a half later, put the woman in a body bag, and transported her to the funeral home. About an hour later, staffers unzipped the bag and saw her gasping for air.
After being discovered alive, the woman was transported to a nearby hospital with shallow breathing and a low temperature. Because she had a “Do Not Resuscitate” directive, the patient was returned to the Care Center, where she died two days later.
Iowa’s Department of Health slapped a $10,000 fine on the Care Center for two violations, including failure to preserve residents’ dignity.
In a similar case, on February 4, staffers at a Port Jefferson, New York nursing home declared an 82-year-old woman dead, but she was discovered breathing three hours later.
