In Nebraska, officials are looking into a bizarre incident involving a 74-year-old woman who was thought to have passed away while under hospice care but was discovered to be breathing after being taken to a funeral home.
The unusual situation unfolded on Monday morning when the woman, identified as Constance Glantz, was transported from a nursing home in Lincoln to the Butherus-Maser & Love Funeral Home. She had been pronounced dead at the nursing home around 9:44 a.m. local time.
At the funeral home, an employee noticed that Glantz was breathing and immediately called 911 around 11:44 a.m. They performed CPR on her before she was rushed to a nearby hospital.
Sadly, Glantz later passed away at the hospital around 4 p.m. that same day. Her family has been informed about the situation and authorities expressed their condolences.
The Lancaster County authorities are conducting an investigation into the incident. An autopsy has been ordered, and the results might not be available for up to 12 weeks.
Because Glantz’s death was expected and there were no signs of foul play, the nursing home didn’t have to notify the coroner or local authorities when she was initially declared dead.
The Nursing home, The Mulberry at Waverly is already getting some bad press from the incident as seen on google reviews.
According to medicare.gov the nursing home only has a two star rating on health inspections.
The nursing home also has had 8 citations in the past 3 years according to public records at medicare.gov.
This case is highly unusual, according to Lancaster County Chief Deputy Ben Houchin, who has been in law enforcement for 31 years.
The sheriff’s office is leading the investigation, but no criminal charges are pending at the moment. Houchin mentioned that the nursing home has been cooperative throughout the process. While there’s no evidence of wrongdoing by the nursing home, the investigation is ongoing to understand how such a rare occurrence could have happened.
