An investigation has been launched after an 82-year-old woman was pronounced dead at a New York nursing home – only to be found breathing three hours later at a funeral home.
The woman was said to be dead at Water’s Edge Rehab and Nursing Centre at Port Jefferson on Long Island at 11.15am on Saturday.
Suffolk County police said the woman, whose name has not been released, was taken to the OB Davis Funeral Homes in Miller Place at 1.30 pm.
She was discovered breathing at 2.09pm.
She was taken to a hospital. No update on her condition was available on Monday.
The state attorney general and health department are investigating.
It comes just weeks after a care home in Iowa was fined $10,000 (£8,300) over a similar episode.
Authorities said a 66-year-old woman was declared dead on 3 January, at the Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Special Care Centre in Urbandale, where she was receiving hospice care.
The woman was placed in a body bag and taken to the Ankeny Funeral Home and Crematory, where workers found she was breathing and called 911.
She was returned to hospice care, where she died on 5 January.