A hospice facility in Iowa has been fined $10,000 after a woman was presumed dead hours before she was found gasping for air inside a body bag at a funeral home, officials said.
The Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals said in a report released Wednesday that a nurse at Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Special Care Center in Urbandale determined that the 66-year-old woman had died on Jan. 3 and transferred the resident to a funeral home. was given.
The report said the woman, who has not been publicly identified, was admitted to the hospice on 28 December because of “degeneration of the brain”.
According to the report, at 6 am on January 3, a nurse examined the patient, but no signs of life were found.
The report stated that her “mouth was open, her eyes were fixed, and there were no breath sounds,” a nurse was unable to locate the woman’s pulse using her stethoscope.
The report states that the nurse placed her hand on the woman’s abdomen and “did not see any movement.”
“The hospice agreed to call the funeral home and did so,” it said.
The report states that about an hour and forty minutes later, a funeral director placed the woman’s body “on a gurney inside a cloth bag and sealed it”. The report said that the director left with the woman after about 10 minutes. The report said that just before 8:30 a.m., the funeral home staff discovered that the woman was still alive.
“Funeral home staff opened the bag and observed that resident #1’s chest was moving and she was gasping for air. The funeral home then called 911 and the hospice,” the report states.
When EMS arrived, they recorded the woman’s pulse, and noted that she had no eye movements or verbal, vocal or motor responses, according to the report.
The woman was taken to the emergency room. She was returned to the hospice facility and died two days later with her family by her side, according to state reports.
The state fined $10,000, the maximum amount allowed under Iowa law, according to a spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals.
A state citation Wednesday said the facility “failed to provide adequate direction to provide appropriate care and services” and failed to ensure she received “dignified treatment and care at the end of life.”
The hospice facility’s executive director said representatives are in contact with the resident’s family.
“We care deeply for our residents and are fully committed to their end-of-life care,” executive director Lisa Eastman said in a statement. “All staff are given regular training so they can best support end-of-life care and death of our residents.”