Woman thought to be dead spends two hours in a body bag before funeral workers realized she was alive
Topics: US News
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Provided by Balducci family
Topics: US News
The family of a woman who was thought to be dead and spent two hours in a body bag are suing a nursing home, court papers suggest.
As per a Suffolk County Supreme Court lawsuit, Janet Balducci had been at Water’s Edge Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in Port Jefferson, Long Island when a nurse declared her dead in February 2023.
Baldcucci was even placed in a body bag to be embalmed, but incredibly she hadn't actually died.
When the 82-year-old reached the Casimir Funeral Home in Miller Place, New York, an unexpected occurrence.
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An employee opened the bag to discover Balducci was “still breathing and had a pulse,” a family lawyer Peter DeNoto told The New York Post.
The funeral home subsequently called the emergency services, where Balducci was then taken to hospital.
"She survived for another day but ultimately passed," DeNoto added to the outlet.
Robert and Joseph Balducci, the elderly woman's sons, are now suing the nursing home and the funeral home for negligence and wrongful death.
While the son's will likely want a hefty payout from the lawsuit, they are more keen for answers as to how their mother was placed in a body bag while she was still alive, DeNoto noted.
“Did the nurse follow the criteria for determining whether somebody is dead and did a doctor confirm what the nurse found?” the lawyer said as to one question the family want answering.
DeNoto went on to claim the case highlights a larger issue surrounding elderly being neglected at long-term care facilities.
The lawyer added: "There really is no excuse for putting a live person in a body bag and sending them to a facility for embalming.
"There was nobody there advocating for her as an elderly person.
"She was definitely at the end stages of her life, unfortunately. That happens to all of us. But here it seems that it was too easy to say she is not alive anymore let’s send her to a facility."
Balducci was placed at Water’s Edge in September 2022, with the lawsuit claiming the caretakers prematurely declared her deceased.
Not only that, but it also claims they contributed to her death by failing to diagnose or properly treat her deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
DeNoto added to the New York Post: "It really is a sad case. The end game is to send a message that you have to take your job seriously and you have to treat human beings with dignity and respect."
UNILAD has reached out to Water's Edge for comment.