Funeral Home Finds Woman Alive After A Nursing Home Pronounced Her Dead
An 82-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the Water's Edge Nursing Home located in Port Jefferson, New York, only to be discovered alive hours later at the funeral home she was transported to.
On Saturday, an 82-year-old woman at a nursing home on Long Island was pronounced dead and transferred to a funeral home, but nearly three hours later was discovered to be alive and breathing. This shocking event comes just weeks after a similar event at a nursing home in Iowa. Nursing homes have long been under scrutiny for their potential for abuse and neglect, as their patients are often unable to communicate their experiences to loved ones or other caregivers, and Saturday’s death-scare debacle only adds to the public’s concern.
The patient was a resident at the Water’s Edge Rehab and Nursing Center in Port Jefferson, New York, a facility that was previously considered one of the country’s most reputable, according to U.S. News and World Report. Only 16% of U.S. skilled nursing care facilities received the designation of “Best Nursing Home,” but the recent scandal raises the question: if this can happen at one of the best, what exactly is going on at the worst? So far, Water’s Edge has declined to comment on the incident, amid police and health department investigation.
According to NPR and the Suffolk County Police, the woman was pronounced dead at 11:15 a.m. on Saturday. She was then transferred to the O.B. Davis Funeral Homes, approximately two hours later. Funeral employees followed all typical procedures until 2:09 p.m. when, miraculously, they discovered that the woman was breathing. She was immediately taken to a local hospital, but police have stated that they do not have information on her current condition.
After Saturday’s incident, the Suffolk County Police Department has launched a full investigation into the circumstances and Water’s Edge itself. The New York State Department of Health is also doing its own inquiry into the health standards and conditions at Water’s Edge. Though no determinations have been made yet about Water’s Edge or about what consequences will follow for them, a similar case last month in Iowa led to that facility receiving a $10,000 fine.
Nursing homes and elder abuse and neglect are significant problems both in the U.S. and abroad. It’s estimated that as many as one-third of older adults have been the victim of nursing home abuse, a staggering number considering that over 800,000 people live in residential care facilities. Almost 85% of nursing homes or residential care facilities have reported at least one case of abuse or neglect, and Water’s Edge will now have to be counted within that number.
While some instances of neglect and abuse can be attributed to the actions of perverse or callous individuals, much of the blame goes to systematic and structural issues, such as inadequate staffing and support for current staff. Sometimes a lack of oversight and accountability can lead to an environment of abuse and neglect, as well. While Saturday’s bizarre events aren’t very common, they do point to a much larger issue in the American medical care system, one that hopefully the “back from the dead” incident at Water’s Edge sheds some light on.
