Urbandale care center fined $10,000 for pronouncing death of woman who was still alive

A continuing care home in Urbandale is being fined $10,000 after declaring one of its residents dead and transferring her to a funeral home in Ankeny, where she was found to still be alive.

A report from the Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals says the mistaken death declaration occurred on Jan. 3 after a staff member at the Glen Oaks Alzheimer's Special Care Center reported that the woman, 66, had died about 6 a.m. The report said the woman, who had early onset dementia, anxiety and depression, had been in hospice care since Dec. 28.

The staff member reported she could no longer feel the woman's pulse and alerted a nurse practitioner, who made the death declaration, the report said. Iowa law allows nurses and physicians' assistants, in addition to doctors, to declare a patient dead.

The report also said that the woman previously had suffered minor seizures and showed signs of mottled skin, a sign of approaching death. It notes that among the staffers attending the woman was one who had worked a 12-hour overnight shift.

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About 90 minutes after the woman was declared dead, she was taken to the Ankeny Funeral Home & Crematory in a zipped body bag, the report said. When she arrived, funeral home staff unzipped the bag and saw that her chest was moving, then called 911, it said.

The Ankeny Fire Department responded to the call, which it said reported a person in apparent cardiac arrest. That proved incorrect, the department said, and the woman was taken to Mercy West Lakes Hospital, where she was found to be breathing, though unresponsive.

Woman later dies in hospice

She was returned to hospice care, where she died Jan. 5, according to the department of inspections and appeals report. The agency found the Urbandale care center had "failed to provide adequate direction to ensure appropriate cares and services were provided" regarding the declaration of the patient's death.

Lisa Eastman, executive director of the Glen Oaks Alzheimer's Special Care Center, said the facility has been in close communication with the family of the woman.

"We care deeply about our residents and we remain fully committed to supporting their end-of-life care. All of our employees are given regular training in how best to support end-of-life care and the death transition for our residents," Eastman said.

The Iowa Capital Dispatch reported in February 2022 that Glen Oaks had been fined $500 for failing to perform the required background checks on employees. It said the home was also cited, but not fined, for violations related to physical exams and screening of personnel, resident discharges, resident records, drug storage, resident service plans and tuberculosis screening. Also, inspectors reviewed the personnel files of five workers and found that none of the five had received the required training to work in a memory-care facility.

Sgt. Corey Schneden, a spokersperson for the Ankeny Police Department, said it is not pursuing criminal charges.

A representative of Dignity Memorial, the parent company of The Ankeny Funeral Home & Crematory, declined to comment.

"Out of respect for the privacy and confidentiality of the families we are honored to serve, we are not in a position to comment further on this matter," the spokesperson wrote in an email to the Register.

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What is the process for declaring someone dead?

There are many steps between declaring someone dead and taking the body to a funeral home, according to Danielle Knapp, the executive director of the Iowa Funeral Directors Association.

Not only does the family need to be notified, but arrangements need to be made for pickup of the body, which at times takes up to two or three hours, Knapp said.

"There are a lot of variables in it," she said. "But at no time is the funeral director ever involved in pronouncing somebody dead."

Knapp said she does not have any direct knowledge of what happened at Ankeny Funeral Home & Crematory. Speaking generally, she said, individuals pronounced dead often will arrive at funeral homes before a death certificate is signed. However, she emphasized that a funeral home director is not authorized to make a death determination and would never "assume that somebody is deceased" without an official determination.

Under Iowa law, according to the Iowa Board of Medicine, a death certificate must be signed by a medical examiner, or, in the case of a natural death, by a doctor, physician's assistant or advanced registered nurse practitioner who "is in charge of the patient’s care for the illness or condition which resulted in death.”

Francesca Block is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at FBlock@registermedia.com or on Twitter at @francescablock3.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa woman assumed dead found to be alive at funeral home, report says