Authorities have this week been investigating an extremely 'unusual' case, which saw a 74-year-old US woman discovered to have been buried alive - even after the nursing home in which she was residing pronounced her dead.
Constance Glantz had been in hospice care before staff at The Mulberry nursing home in Waverly, Nebraska, pronounced her dead at around 9.45am on Monday, June 3.
Her body was subsequently transferred to Butherus-Maser & Love Funeral Home.
Within a matter of minutes, however, staff at the funeral facility were forced to call Lincoln Fire and Rescue after noticing that the elderly woman was still breathing.
A spokesperson for the emergency services claimed they'd been reported to a scene of 'CPR in progress'.
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Speaking to press in a conference, a member of Lancaster County Sheriff's Office recalled the horrific ordeal, which almost saw the woman 'buried alive'
"This is a very unusual case," Chief Deputy Ben Houchin explained. "Been doing this 31 years, and nothing like this has ever gotten to this point before."
Giving traumatised followers of the story an update, he went on: "She was taken to a local hospital, and is still alive.
"LSO has been to the nursing home, and we have started our investigation into what happened. At this point, we have not been able to find any criminal intent by the nursing home, but the investigation is ongoing."
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Though he added that it wasn't unusual for his team to be called to a coroner investigation, he explained that this particular case was downright peculiar as a physician had already signed her death certificate.
"It did not fall into those parameters for them to have to call us to have to do a coroner investigation," Houchin continued. "Those are ‘a death of a patient whose death is anticipated,’ which this was, and a physician had seen her in the last seven days, and the physician was willing to sign the death certificate, and that there was nothing suspicious at the time of the death."
Asked why he wasn't initially dispatched to the nursing home, he went on: "All of those fit."
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Explaining that the almost-victims family had been notified of the incident, the Chief Deputy revealed that 'at least one nurse' had also checked in on Constance's body before she was transported to the funeral home.
"We’re still ongoing with the investigation and trying to determine what transpired in it," he admitted.
Rhianna Benson