Woman pronounced dead, sent for embalming, found breathing

The family of an 82-year-old woman who was pronounced dead at a New York nursing home are demanding answers after after she was later found to be breathing two hours later at the funeral home.

Janet Balducci was thought to have died mid-morning at the Water’s Edge Rehab and Nursing Center in Port Jefferson on New York’s Long Island.

A staffer placed the 82-year-old’s remains into a body bag and sent her off to be embalmed.

But there was just one catch: Balducci was still alive, spending a full two hours inside the sealed bag before funeral parlorworkers realized their cadaver had a pulse.

The unthinkable cock-up constituted “extreme and outrageous conduct,” and Balducci’s two sons are looking for answers, according to a lawsuit obtained they filed.

The lawsuit accuses Balducci’s caretakers of not only prematurely declaring her deceased, but contributing to her death in the first place by failing to diagnose or properly treat her deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which she developed as nursing home workers allegedly stood by and did nothing to head off eventual disaster.

Robert and Joseph Balducci “are horrified” by what happened, “and they have to live with the fact that Janet was placed in a body bag alive,” the family’s lawyer, Peter DeNoto, told The Independent.

“I think the case is more emblematic of what happens when elderly people go into these homes,” DeNoto said. “They don’t have an advocate to keep track of what’s happening.”

The Balducci family’s lawsuit calls out those involved for “negligence, gross negligence, and/or recklessness,” arguing that their actions constituted “extreme and outrageous conduct.” The incident made national headlines after it occurred last year, and was referred to Suffolk County police, the New York State Department of Health, and the New York Attorney General’s Office for investigation, but Balducci’s name and the specifics of what happened have never been previously revealed.

Balducci had been fully self-reliant and living on her own until she took a fall at home in the summer of 2022, DeNoto said. She was admitted to Stony Brook University Hospital on August 1, 2022, for treatment following the fall, and on September 6, 2022, was transferred to the Water’s Edge Rehabilitation & Nursing Center at Port Jefferson for rehabilitation and long-term care, he said.

Things seemed fine for the first few months, but Balducci’s health then began to decline, according to DeNoto, a partner at Dell & Dean PLLC. On Feb. 3, 2023, a nurse practitioner at Water’s Edge noted on Balducci’s chart that her appetite had decreased and was lethargic, but was “in no acute distress and [was] responsive,” DeNoto went on.

“We have limited information about what transpired for the remainder of the day, but at 11:39 p.m., another nurse practitioner noted that Janet was ‘unresponsive’ and a physician directed that nurse practitioner to ‘contact the family to discuss care options,’” DeNoto continued. “One of Ms. Balducci’s sons, Robert N. Balducci, was contacted at approximately 11:52 p.m. and requested that comfort care be provided.”

At 7:30 the next morning, the assistant nursing director at Water’s Edge checked on Balducci and noted that she was “in bed and comfortable,” DeNoto said. The assistant nursing director’s next entry, made Feb. 4 at 12:10 p.m., said Balducci had “expired at 11:15 a.m. and efforts were being made to determine which funeral home would be called in to retrieve the body for interment,” according to him.

He said Balducci was then put into a sealed body bag, which was sent to the Casimir Funeral Home in Miller Place, New York. At 2:09 p.m. funeral home workers unzipped the bag, and, according to DeNoto, discovered that Balducci “was still breathing and had a pulse.” The funeral home called paramedics, who intubated Balducci while rushing her to nearby John T. Mather Memorial Hospital. When Balducci got there, DeNoto said she was “noted to be unresponsive.”

“She was placed on palliative care and held on until 5:20 a.m. on February 5, 2023,” DeNoto said. “At that time, she passed.”

Water’s Edge describes itself as providing “outstanding short term and subacute care,” combined with “the first-class amenities of the finest boutique hotels.”

In its most recent publicly available data, the New York State Department of Health gave Water’s Edge an overall three-star rating (out of five), with 107 complaints per 100 occupied beds (the statewide average is 52.5). It was cited for a raft of “moderately severe” deficiencies over the past three years, including insufficient levels of nursing staff, all of which have been corrected, according to state records. The facility has racked up $22,000 in fines since 2012, for, variously, failing to document an incident in which a patient fell to the floor of their room, leaving a patient’s pressure ulcers untreated, and leaving a patient outside in the hot sun, leading to heat exhaustion and dehydration.

A not-insignificant number of living people have been zipped into body bags before they actually expired. Cases have been reported in Australia, Brazil, Utah, Iowa, and Detroit, Michigan.

Now that Balducci’s sons have filed their initial complaint, DeNoto said his firm is “waiting for the facility and the funeral home to serve answers.” The criminal investigation opened by law enforcement remains ongoing, according to DeNoto.

“At this point, we have obtained our information from family members and the medical records, and as the case progresses, we will obtain more information from the people who were present about what transpired,”he said adding “we will continue investigating the events [in question] and what Janet went through until she passed.”