Woman Wakes Up At Detroit Funeral Home After Paramedics Declared Her Dead

Sure, 2020 has been weird, but at least most of us didn’t wake up in a funeral home after mistakenly being declared dead. That’s exactly what happened to a Detroit woman on Sunday.

Paramedics declared a woman dead and her family sent her to James H. Cole Funeral Home. The mortuary workers quickly realized that the supposedly dead woman was still breathing. They called the Fire Department as soon as it was apparent that the woman was alive.

At 7:34 a.m. on Sunday, the Southfield Fire Department answered a call for an unresponsive female, Chief Johnny L. Menifee of the SFD said in a statement. She was not breathing, and EMS workers from the fire department attempted to revive her for half an hour.

"The paramedics performed CPR and other life-reviving methods for 30 minutes," Menifee said. "Given medical readings and the condition of the patient, it was determined at that time that she did not have signs of life."

With no indication of foul play, the Southfield Fire Department claim they called the Oakland County Medical Examiner's Office, who also declared her dead. The Medical Examiner’s Office told ABC News they were never involved. The Southfield Police Department is now investigating how this happened.

After being found breathing at the funeral home, the Fire Department took her to Sinai-Grace Hospital in Detroit. Dave Fornell, deputy commissioner of the Detroit Fire Department, said that the woman had “a decent heart rate” and “decent blood-oxygen” when she was admitted.

The woman’s name was not released, but the Detroit Free Press says she was 20 years old.

Though funeral homes typically receive legitimately dead bodies, the occasional mistake happens. In April, Gladys Rodríguez Duarte, a 46-year-old mother suffering from ovarian cancer, was declared dead at a hospital after experiencing a severe spike in blood pressure. Funeral home workers opened her body bag once they noticed her moving, according to the New York Post.

Doctors suggested that Rodríguez Duarte may have suffered from catalepsy, a medical condition where the body doesn’t respond to outside stimuli.