A 65-year-old Florida man was found breathing minutes after he had been declared dead, officials say.
Clearwater Fire & Rescue medics were dispatched to assist the man in a home in Pinellas county at 10 a.m. Feb. 15.
Phebe Maxwell told NBC affiliate WFLA of Tampa that she and a friend were administering CPR to her father before the medics arrived.
Shortly after they arrived, the medics pronounced the man dead, according to a statement from Clearwater Fire & Rescue.
Maxwell said she tried to tell the medics that her father was still breathing.
"I’m like ‘He’s still breathing!’” Maxwell told WFLA. "He’s like 'No ma’am, he’s gone, those are just his body releasing gases.'"
The medics left, and the Pinellas County Sheriff's office arrived to investigate the death. That's when a deputy noticed the 65-year-old man was breathing.
At 10:28 a.m., a crew from Largo Fire Rescue responded to the location and took him to a local hospital.
It's not clear what caused the man's medical emergency or what his prognosis is.
His daughter on Monday told WFLA that the man was still in intensive care and was seeing a speech therapist for slowed speech. She worries he may suffer long-term effects from the incident.
“I’m frustrated, hurt and mad. I don’t know what this is going to do to my dad. I don’t know what kind of life he’s going to have now,” she told the outlet.
The medics who initially responded to the scene were put "on administrative duty and have been clinically suspended," meaning they can't provide any patient care, said Rob Shaw, a spokesperson for Clearwater Fire & Rescue.
"On behalf of the city, I apologize for the actions and the inactions of our crew during this incident," Fire Chief Scott Ehlers said in a statement. "We have strict policies and procedures in place that were not followed, according to our preliminary review. These two did not perform to the standard of care that our citizens expect and deserve."
Last month, a woman in New York was pronounced dead at a nursing home only to be discovered breathing nearly three hours later, police said.
The case was referred to New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office.
In January, a 66-year-old woman at an Iowa hospice facility was mistakenly presumed dead.
The state’s Department of Inspections and Appeals said a nurse at the facility checked on the woman and found no signs of life. The resident was transferred to a funeral home, where staff members saw her “chest was moving and she was gasping for air,” the department said in a report.
The woman was taken to the emergency room. She was returned to the hospice facility and died two days later, according to the report.
Iowa fined the facility $10,000.
