A 74 year old woman, who was declared dead and moved to a funeral home stunned staff when they saw she was in fact still alive.
Constance Glantz was thought to have have died in a hospice in Nebraska earlier that morning.
She was transferred to the funeral home and while an undertaker was preparing her body for her funeral, they noticed she was still breathing.
She was given CPR by emergency workers and she was taken to hospital. Her condition since then has not been made public.
Lancaster County Chief Deputy Ben Houchin said “It’s a very unusual case.
“Been doing this 31 years and nothing like this has ever gotten to this point before.
“We have not been able to find any criminal intent by the nursing home but the investigation is ongoing.”
The woman had been receiving end-of-life care at a hospice, and was declared dead at 9.44am before being moved to Butherus-Maser & Love Funeral Home in Lincoln.
Some local reports stated that a doctor had even signed a death certificate, though NBC reported it was not clear if this had been finalised.
It is common practice in the area for a coroner to be called in order to officially confirm death before the body is released.
However, in this case it was not deemed necessary because, as a hospice patient, the death was anticipated.
Chief Deputy Houchin said that the mistake was realized when the employee was placing her onto a table to start the process of readying her remains.
“I’m sure the nursing home and everybody else is going to be taking a look into what has happened, and I’m sure they’ll look and see if new protocols need to be made and if they were all followed,” he added.