Dead Women Don't Cough

[TonyG]

Have you heard this news story?

A woman in Mass. was found unconscious in her bathtub last Saturday. The EMT's could detect no pulse or breathing and her body color was grey. They suspected suicide and took her to a funeral home. Twenty minutes later a worker at the home heard a cough, opened the body bag and found the woman alive.

Are there any EMT's here at Lit because I have a few questions?
-Is it normal procedure to take a body directly to a funeral home and not the hospital?
-Doesn't a doctor have to concur on death?
-What did these EMT's miss doing, if anything?

 

[Gingersnap]

I would wonder about that story. Most EMTs would begin CPR and transport her to the ER. When working in the ER we always had the EMTs bring in the people to at least make sure that sort of thing did not happen. If their leads were not placed correctly or her blood pressure was very low and her heart rate very slow she could have been mistakenly declared dead. It is a possibilty to be pronounced dead and have your heart start to work again. The medications they give in an arrest situation could be delayed in acting. Or she could have had a diver reflex type of response or been post seizure or a vagal response.

[Edited by Gingersnap on 01-25-2001 at 01:07 PM]