Elderly Woman Found Breathing In Funeral Home Hours After She Was Pronounced Dead

An 82-year-old woman who was pronounced dead in a nursing center in New York was found breathing in a funeral home hours later, officials said.

The unidentified woman was pronounced dead at Waters Edge Rehab and Nursing Center at Port Jefferson in Suffolk county on Feb. 4 at around 11:15 a.m. Two hours later, she was taken to O.B. Davis Funeral Home in Miller Place.

The officials found the woman breathing around 30 minutes later, and she was shifted to a local hospital, officials said, as reported by ABC7 NY.

The exact details of the incident are unclear and the case is being referred to the New York State Attorney General's Office for investigation. The woman's identity and her current condition are also not known.

Meanwhile, O.B. Davis Funeral Home said they would not be revealing further details about the incident, citing the privacy of the elderly woman and her family involved. "Out of respect for the privacy and confidentiality of the families we are honored to serve, we are not in a position to comment further on this matter," the funeral home said in a statement to News12 New Jersey.

In a similar incident last month, a 66-year-old woman in Iowa was found gasping for air inside a body bag at a funeral home just hours after she was pronounced dead. The unidentified woman who was receiving hospice care at the Glen Oaks Alzheimer's Special Care Center was pronounced dead on Jan. 3 after a staff member at the facility who checked on the patient's condition could not feel a pulse.

After the funeral home director zipped her inside a body bag, the staff members noticed her chest moving and called 911. The woman was then transported to a hospital and back to the hospice facility where she eventually died on Jan. 5 while her family was around her. The hospice facility now faces a fine of $10,000 in connection with the incident. The patient was not treated with dignity and was not given proper care, reports said.