A 74-year-old woman believed to have died while in hospice care was found to be breathing after being transported to a funeral home, authorities in Nebraska said Monday.
The woman had been transported from a nursing home, where she had been declared dead at around 9:44 a.m. local time, to the Butherus-Maser & Love Funeral Home in Lincoln on Monday morning, according to the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities responded to the funeral home after an employee noticed the woman was breathing and “instantly called 911” at approximately 11:44 a.m., according to Lancaster County Chief Deputy Ben Houchin.
While my experience of elder care paints a picture of negligence there are also documented cases where people “die” and then “stop being dead” like this.
It’s called Lazarus Syndrome. I was exposed to a case once at a large ER while waiting for a bed for my own patient (hello, am paramedic). Not too much to say about it, the ED staff were working a code, like they do, and called it. About twenty minutes later, some staff was in the room cleaning up when they noticed the patient breathing and told the nurses. Staff came running like hell and worked them for another 15-20 minutes before calling it again. Weird shit, and pretty unusual in my experience, AFAIK we still don’t understand the mechanism behind it.
Thank you for your service.
Thanks, I appreciate it