"The employee was placing Constance Glantz onto the table to start their process and the employee noticed that she was still breathing," Lancaster County Sheriff Chief Deputy Ben Houchin said.
A Nebraska funeral worker preparing to start the embalming process on a patient noticed that the woman on her table was still breathing, according to authorities.
Hospice patient Constance Glantz, 74, was declared dead at 9:44 a.m. and transported from her nursing facility to Butherus-Maser & Love Funeral Home in Lincoln, Lancaster County Sheriff Chief Deputy Ben Houchin said at a news conference on Monday.
Two hours later, and just seconds before undergoing what would have been a fatal procedure, Glantz's life was saved by her would-be embalmer.
"The employee was placing Constance Glantz onto the table to start their process and the employee noticed that she was still breathing," Houchin said.
That employee then called 911 and alerted them to her discovery, at which point members of the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office took Glantz to a local hospital.
Four hours later, Glantz was declared dead at the hospital.
Houchin said that the incident is currently under investigation, while also pointing out that the sheriff's office was not dispatched to the scene because Glantz was receiving hospice care. In those situations, the death of a patient is "anticipated" and in Glantz's case, a physician had seen her in the previous seven days and was willing to sign the death certificate because there were no suspicious occurrences at that time of her death, Houchin said.
He would not identify the individual who declared Glantz dead.
Before taking questions from reporters, Houchin took a moment to acknowledge Glantz's family, who suffered two loses and one miracle on Monday. "I can't imagine what her family has went through and we are really, really sorry for them to have to do that," Houchin said.
He then closed out his remarks by saying: "It's a very unusual case. I've been doing this 31 years and nothing like this has ever gotten to this point before."
