Elderly woman found breathing at New York funeral home hours after being pronounced dead — the second such incident this year

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Elderly woman found breathing at New York funeral home hours after being pronounced dead — the second such incident this year
An 82-year-old woman was observed breathing at a New York funeral home hours after she was pronounced dead.Getty Images
  • A woman was observed breathing at a New York funeral home hours after being pronounced dead.
  • The 82-year-old woman was transported to a hospital following the incident on Saturday.
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An 82-year-old woman got the shock of her life on Saturday when employees at a New York funeral home observed her breathing just hours after she was pronounced dead, police said.

Suffolk County Police are investigating the incident in which the elderly woman was deemed dead at Waters Edge Rehab and Nursing Center in Port Jefferson, New York on Saturday, Feb. 4 and then transported to O.B. Davis Funeral Home.

In a statement to Insider, police said the woman was first pronounced dead at 11:15 a.m, before being moved to the funeral home at 1:30 p.m. Approximately 40 minutes later — nearly three hours after she was first determined to be dead — she was discovered breathing at the funeral home, according to police.

The woman was then transported to a local hospital. Her current condition is unknown.

The incident has been referred to New York Attorney General Letitia James' office, police said. A spokesperson with James' office confirmed that the attorney general is looking into the situation.

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"This is an awful situation that has caused unnecessary trauma for the impacted resident and her loved ones," a representative for the office said.

Waters Edge Rehab and Nursing Center did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment and a representative with the funeral home declined to comment.

This is the second such incident of mistaken death in just more than a month. A 66-year-0ld hospice patient came to gasping for air inside a body bag at an Iowa funeral home last month after she was prematurely pronounced dead at an Alzheimer's care center.

The woman was taken to a hospital for further evaluation, and two days after her harrowing brush with death, she died for real, surrounded by her family members in hospice care, according to a state incident report.

The care facility at the center of that blunder is now facing a $10,000 fine for failing to ensure its resident received "dignified treatment and care at end of life."

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The New York Attorney's General Office did not say whether the New York facility will face a similar fine.

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