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WIth the Associated Press.
It’s happened before.
Strange and eerie as it may seem, the 82-year-old nursing home resident who allegedly woke up — not dead and gasping for air — inside a body bag at a Miller Place funeral home this weekend is apparently not the first American in 2023 to be assumed dead and shipped off to a funeral home.
In January, a 66-year-old woman in Iowa was apparently prematurely declared dead at a continuing care home in Iowa, authorities said. The care home was fined $10,000 by authorities.
Authorities there said the sickly woman was declared dead Jan. 3 at the Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Special Care Center in Urbandale, where she was receiving hospice care.
The woman was placed in a body bag and taken to a funeral home and crematory, where workers found she was breathing and called 911, authorities said.
She was returned to hospice care, where she died two days later, according to a report issued last week by the Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals.
The Long Island woman, whose name has not been released, was pronounced dead at Water’s Edge Rehab and Nursing Center at Port Jefferson at 11:15 a.m. Saturday, Suffolk County police said.
She was then taken to the O.B. Davis Funeral Homes in Miller Place at 1:30 p.m., police said in a news release. She was discovered breathing at 2:09 p.m., cops said.
The woman was taken to a hospital. No update on her condition was available Monday.
The case has been referred to the state attorney general’s office for investigation, police said.
The state health department is investigating, as well, spokesperson Monica Pomeroy said, adding that she could not elaborate.
O.B. officials said in a statement, “Out of respect for the privacy and confidentiality of the families we are honored to serve, we are not in a position to comment further on this matter.”
Top image: Google Maps.
