The Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Special Care Center in Iowa were caring for a 66-year-old woman who had been admitted to the Care Center in December 2021, diagnosed with depression, early-onset dementia, and anxiety.
On January 3, mistakenly thinking the woman was dead, staff transferred the woman to a funeral home.
The Care Center is now being fined $10,000 by the Iowa State Department of Health, after the woman was found to be alive.
The Iowa Inspection and Appeals Department reports 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 unnamed woman had been put on hospice in December 2022 because she was suffering from advanced brain degeneration. She was being treated with lorazepam for anxiety and morphine for pain.
A nurse’s notes reveal that the patient appeared calm and comfortable on December 29, but on December 30, she refused to come out of her room and eat. On January 1 and 2, the nurse noted the woman’s temperature had declined and that she was not speaking or responding. She also reportedly suffered minor seizures.
On January 3, a staff member at the facility found the resident had no pulse and wasn’t breathing. A licensed nurse declared her dead at around 6 am.
The patient’s family was called and a nurse called the funeral home.
A funeral home staffer arrived at the Care Center soon after, and transported the “dead” woman to the funeral home in a body bag. 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 although her breathing was shallow and her temperature was abnormally low. 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 fined the Care Center $10,000 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.