The 66-year-old patient was placed in a zipped body bag and taken to the funeral where workers found that she was breathing and called 911.
A continuing care home in suburban Des Moines, Iowa, has been fined $10,000 after a funeral home discovered a woman sent to it in a body bag was still alive.
She was placed in a zipped body bag and taken to the Ankeny Funeral Home & Crematory, where workers found that she was breathing and called 911, the report said. A Glen Oaks staff member who had worked a 12-hour shift and was on the team caring for the woman told investigators she first reported to a nurse practitioner early Jan. 3 that the woman was not breathing and had no pulse.The nurse practitioner who had cared for the woman throughout the night also was unable to find a pulse and said the woman was not breathing. She continued to assess the woman for about five minutes before determining the woman had died.
The department of inspections and appeals found the care center “failed to provide adequate direction to ensure appropriate cares and services were provided” before the woman was declared dead.