National Post (National Edition)
WOMAN WHO `DIED' RETURNED TO CARE HOME 10 DAYS LATER
An 85-year-old woman believed by her family to have died from the coronavirus surprised her relatives by returning to her care home nine days after they were told she had been buried, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
After a mix-up over names, the family of Rogelia Blanco were informed that the pensioner died of COVID-19 on Jan. 13 and her funeral was the next day, the La Voz de Galicia newspaper said. Due to coronavirus protocols, they were unable to attend.
So when she arrived fit and well back at the care home in Xove, northern Spain, on Saturday where her husband Ramón Blanco also lived, he was overwhelmed, the paper said.
“I could not believe it. I was crying, after the death of my wife,” it quoted him as saying, adding that it was the woman who shared a room with Blanco who had died.
The newspaper quoted the San Rosendo Foundation, which runs the care home, as saying the error occurred when Blanco and other residents who tested positive for COVID-19 were transferred to another care home on Dec. 29 for specialized treatment.
“Among the elderly people transferred were two women who were assigned the same room,” the foundation said, according to La Voz de Galicia.