A rest home in the United States has been fined US$10,000 after a funeral home discovered a woman sent to it in a body bag was still alive.
The Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals said in a report filed Wednesday that the 66-year-old woman was declared dead at the Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Special Care Centre in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 3.
The woman, whose name has not been released, had early-onset dementia, anxiety and depression and had been in hospice care since December 28.
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.
She was taken to Mercy West Lakes Hospital, where she was breathing but unresponsive. The woman was ultimately returned to hospice care, where she died on January 5 with her family by her side, according to the report.