Woman, 66, is found 'gasping for air' inside a body bag at Iowa funeral home

A US care home in suburban Des Moines, Iowa, has been fined $10,000 after a funeral home discovered a woman sent to it in a body bag ‘gasping for air’.

The Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals said in a report filed on Wednesday that the 66-year-old woman was declared dead at the Glen Oaks Alzheimer’s Special Care Centre in Urbandale on January 3.

She was placed in a zipped body bag and taken to the Ankeny Funeral Home and Crematory, the report said. 

‘At approximately 8:26 a.m. funeral home staff unzipped the bag and observed Resident #1’s chest was moving and she was gasping for air,’ the report states. 

Workers then called 911.  

When emergency medical services responded, they were able to record a pulse and a shallow breath, according to the report.

She was taken to Mercy West Lakes Hospital, where she was breathing but unresponsive.

The woman was ultimately returned to hospice care, where she died on January 5 with her family by her side, according to the report.

Source of data and images: dailymail