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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
World
Cathal Ryan

Funeral directors discover woman breathing hours after she was declared dead

An elderly woman who was pronounced dead at a nursing home in New York was found to be breathing just hours later at a funeral home she had been taken to.

The 82-year-old woman, who has not been named, was declared dead at Water's Edge Rehab and Nursing Centre at Port Jefferson in Long Island on Saturday at 11:15am, Suffolk County police said.

Just weeks prior the same nursing home was recognised as one of the Best Nursing Homes for 2022-2023.

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Despite being declared dead, after being brought from the nursing home to the OB Davis Funeral Homes in Miller Place staff noticed that she was in fact still alive and breathing, CBS News reports.

The woman was brought to the funeral home at 1:30pm and was discovered to be still alive at 2:09pm. She was later taken to the hospital, although no update on her condition has been released.

In a statement, funeral home officials said: "Out of respect for the privacy and confidentiality of the families we are honoured to serve, we are not in a position to comment further on this matter."

Both the state health department and the attorney general are investigating the incident.

While this may seem like a very rare occurrence, a similar incident took place in the US state of Iowa just weeks prior to this lady being declared alive.

On January 3, a 66-year-old woman was declared dead at the Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Special Care Centre in Urbandale, however, she was found to be breathing upon arrival at the Ankeny Funeral Home and Crematory. The incident resulted in the nursing home being fined $10,000.

The woman subsequently died a number of days later according to reports.

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