Assumption Is the Mother of All Fuck Ups, II

Just because someone is very old, is sprawled on the floor, isn't moving, has blue skin and smells like she's decomposing is no excuse for not checking her pulse.

An employee of the State Anatomy Board got a shock when he went to transport the body of an elderly Severna Park woman whom county police found "dead" inside her bathroom.

The woman, who lay on the floor for three hours on Oct. 1 while officers notified her family, physician and medical examiner of her death, was in fact alive.

[...]

"We hadn't seen her for four or five days," said Stacie Zarriello, who lives across the street. "She wasn't answering the door or the phone. We checked her mailbox and it was full. The newspapers were piling up."

The officers found an unlocked side door to Johnson's home and went inside.

They searched the first floor, but found nothing. Brown began checking the upstairs bedrooms when he noticed an odor "similar to a decomposition smell," according to the police report.

The officers walked through the master bedroom and opened a bathroom door. There, they found Johnson motionless on the bathroom floor. Her skin was blue and she was not breathing, the report says. The officers' experience led them to believe Johnson had been dead for a couple of days.

Thinking Johnson was clearly deceased, the officers did not check for a pulse.

[...]

Charles Morgan, an employee of the anatomy board, arrived at Johnson's home around 7:10 p.m. - three hours after Johnson was found, seemingly lifeless, on her bathroom floor.

He went upstairs and entered the bathroom. He was preparing to take Johnson's body away when he heard her take a deep breath and saw her move her arm.

[...]

"I shouted, 'Ruth!' and she responded with 'Arrgghh,' " Brown wrote in the report.

UPDATE: Now she's dead again.

[HometownAnnapolis.com]