A Funeral Home Worker Found a Woman Breathing 2 Hours After She Was Declared Dead, Official Says

When a Nebraska woman in a nursing home was declared dead by staff members there on Monday, authorities were not called.

She had been in hospice care, the last step before death for many, so she didn’t meet the guidelines that would require a coroner to be dispatched, a sheriff’s official said.

But two hours later, the woman who some thought had taken her last breath was found not to be a corpse, as an employee at a Lincoln funeral home spotted signs of life.

“This is a very unusual case. I’ve been doing this 31 years and nothing like this has ever gotten to this point before,” Houchin said in a Monday afternoon news conference.

Constance Glantz, 74, was breathing as funeral home workers readied to prepare what they thought was her corpse just before midday Monday, Lancaster County sheriff’s Chief Deputy Ben Houchin told reporters.

Staff at The Mulberry nursing home in Waverly, just northeast of Lincoln, had pronounced Glantz dead at 9:44 a.m., Houchin said.

What was then thought to be Glantz’s lifeless body was taken from the nursing home to the Lincoln funeral home, Houchin said. As funeral home staff were placing Glantz on a table “to start their process,” an employee noticed that she was breathing, according to Houchin.

“They instantly called 911,” Houchin said. Lincoln police and members of the city’s fire and rescue department responded, “and she was taken to a local hospital and is still alive,” he said.

That call from the Lincoln funeral home, which CNN affiliate KOLN named as Butherus-Maser & Love, came around 11:45 a.m. – two hours after Glantz had been pronounced dead, Houchin said.

Details about Glantz’s condition Monday evening weren’t immediately available. CNN has sought comment from the nursing home in Waverly and the funeral home in Lincoln.

Glantz’s family has been informed of the situation, Houchin said. The sheriff’s office has started an investigation and has visited the nursing home in Waverly, he said.

“At this point we have not been able to find any criminal intent by the nursing home, but the investigation is ongoing,” Houchin said.

Chief Deputy Ben Houchin told reporters that so far no evidence of criminal intent had been found. – KOLN

So, how many people had seen Glantz between her supposed death and the moment she was seen breathing on a funeral home table?

Houchin told reporters he was unsure, but thought that at least two people were usually involved in transporting a body.

“I’m sure the nursing home and everybody else is going to be taking a look into what has happened, and I’m sure they’ll look and see if new protocols need to be made and if they were all followed,” he said.

Glantz had been receiving hospice care at the nursing home, the chief deputy said.

Her supposed death had not fallen into the parameters that would have required a coroner’s investigation – and that’s why no coroner or law enforcement officer was sent to the nursing home when she initially was thought to have died, Houchin said.

“Those are a ‘death of a patient is anticipated’ – which this was – and a physician had seen her in the last seven days and the physician is willing to sign the death certificate, and that there was nothing suspicious at that time of the death – all of those fit. That’s the reason why (the sheriff’s office) was not sent initially to the nursing home,” he said.