The family of an 82-year-old woman who was declared dead at a New York nursing home is demanding answers after she was found breathing at a funeral home two hours later.
Janet Balducci is believed to have died mid-morning on February 4, 2023 at Water’s Edge Rehab and Nursing Center in Port Jefferson on Long Island, New York.
Balducci’s body was then transported from the nursing home to Casimir Funeral Home in nearby Miller Place, about six miles away, to be embalmed.
Just as the funeral home workers were ready to tend to Balducci’s body, they noticed that the corpse lying in front of them still had a pulse.
Janet Balducci, 82, was pronounced dead at a New York nursing home, then found breathing two hours later at the funeral home where she had been transported.
The family is now searching for answers and has filed a lawsuit to try to uncover how Water’s Edge nursing home placed Balducci in a body bag even though he was still alive.
Now the family, Balducci’s two sons, Robert and Joseph Balducci, are seeking an explanation for how the mix-up occurred in what has been called “extreme and outrageous conduct” in a lawsuit filed by the family that is taking a two-pronged approach.
The children are suing for what they claim is their mother’s premature and unjust death.
The family believes nursing home staff declared Balducci dead prematurely, but then also contributed to her actual death by failing to diagnose a deep vein thrombosis, which they say occurred while nursing home workers stood by and did nothing to help treat her.
The family’s lawyer says the woman’s children are “horrified” by what happened and have to live with the sickening reality that their mother “was placed alive in a body bag.”
“I think the case is more representative of what happens when seniors enter these homes,” DeNoto said. “They don’t have an advocate to monitor what’s going on,” attorney Peter DeNoto told The Independent.
“Did the nurse follow the criteria for determining whether someone is dead, and did any physician confirm what the nurse found?” DeNoto asks.
“There’s really no excuse for putting a living person in a body bag and sending them to an embalming facility,” the attorney said. The New York Post.
Following the shocking incident, Suffolk County Police, the New York State Department of Health and the New York Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation, but the results of what happened were never revealed.
Janet Balducci’s children are suing over what they claim is the untimely and wrongful death of their mother, seen here pictured as a young woman.
A criminal investigation into the entire episode, with the Water’s Edge facility at the center, is also ongoing.
In the lawsuit, the family accuses those involved of “gross negligence and/or recklessness.”
Balducci had been living in his own home until it suddenly collapsed in the summer of 2022.
After receiving treatment at Stony Brook University on Long Island on August 1, 2022, she was finally taken to Water’s Edge Nursing Home on September 6.
Although Balducci seemed to be doing well during the first few months of his stay, his health suddenly began to decline, along with a loss of appetite and increasing fatigue.
It was late on February 3, 2023, at 11:52 p.m., when a home health nurse suddenly declared the woman “unresponsive.”
Although she survived the night, at 7:30 a.m. on February 4, the next morning, Balducci was described as “in bed and comfortable.”
But four hours later, an entry in his chart indicated that he had “passed away at 11:15 am.”
Arrangements were then made for her to be transported to a funeral home and her body was placed inside a sealed body bag.
Workers at Casimir Funeral Home were about to tend to Balducci’s body when they noticed that the corpse lying in front of them was still alive and still had a pulse.
Another two hours passed before the Casimir funeral home workers opened the bag, at which point they noticed that she… ‘He was still breathing and had a pulse.’
Paramedics were immediately called and she was rushed to nearby John T. Mather Memorial Hospital.
When Balducci arrived at the hospital, “she was noted to be unresponsive and was placed in palliative care and kept her until 5:20 a.m. on February 5, 2023. At that time, she passed away,’ explained the family’s attorney, DeNoto.
Now that Balducci’s children have filed their initial complaint, the family is waiting for “both the facility and the funeral home to provide answers” from the people who were present at both facilities.
They hope to understand what happened and how such mistakes were made.
The criminal investigation into the entire episode remains ongoing.
“There was no one to advocate for her status as an elderly person,” DeNoto said. “Unfortunately, she was in the final stages of her life. We all do. But here it seems like it was too easy to say she was no longer alive and send her to a facility.”
Although Water’s Edge’s facility boasts of offering “exceptional subacute and short-term care” and having “the first-class amenities of the finest boutique hotels,” it has received a decidedly average rating in recent reviews. New York State Department of Health Ratings, 3 out of 5 stars
The home has also been fined $22,000 over the past 12 years.
There have been a number of incidents, including one where a patient was left in the hot sun for over an hour, leading to dehydration and heat exhaustion; a second incident where a patient fell to the floor of his room and a third where a patient’s sores were left untreated.
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