MADRID (Reuters) – An 85-year-old woman believed by her family to have died of coronavirus caught her relatives returning to her care home nine days after they were told she was buried, she said. informed a newspaper on Sunday.
After a confusion between the names, Rogelia Blanco’s family was informed that the pensioner died of COVID-19 on January 13 and her funeral was the next day, La Voz de Galicia newspaper reported. Due to coronavirus protocols, they were unable to participate.
So when she arrived in good shape and well back at the nursing home in Xove, northern Spain, on Saturday, where her husband, Ramón Blanco, also lived, he was overwhelmed, the newspaper says.
“I can’t believe it. I was crying after my wife died,” he was quoted as saying, adding that the woman who shared a room with Blanco had died.
The newspaper quoted the San Rosendo Foundation, which runs the nursing home, as saying the mistake occurred when Blanco and other residents who tested positive for COVID-19 were transferred to another nursing home on Dec. 29 for specialized treatment.
“Among the transferred elderly people were two women who were assigned the same room,” the foundation said, according to La Voz de Galicia. They were transferred to the Os Gozos residence in Pereiro de Aguiar, 223 km (139 miles) from Xove.
“An identification error during the transfer process from Xove to Pereiro de Aguiar led to the death of one of them being certified on January 13, although the identity was wrongly assigned,” he said.
The foundation expressed regret for the “unfortunate incident,” the newspaper said, citing the statement, which added: “This is a unique event, among the more than 100 transfers that have been made since December last year to Os Gozos.”
A court has been informed to reverse the mistake related to Blanco’s death, the statement said. The foundation did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment.
Reporting by Graham Keeley; edited by Philippa Fletcher