Funeral Director on the Odd Story of Lincoln Woman

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Just in case you hadn't heard,and that's probably fairly unlikely, since it
made national and even international headlines.There was a seventy four year old woman
who was on hospice care at anursing home in Waverley and was pronounced dead
there and transported to a funeral homein Lincoln, and she was found to

(00:24):
be breathing at the funeral home,and obviously nine one one was called and
she was rescued and sadly died laterthat day. But it raises a ton
of questions, and I asked mygood friend Bill Cutler to join us for
a few minutes this morning from hefeyHoff and Dwork and Cutler a longtime mortician
in Omaha. Bill, good morning, Good morning Gary. I'm not going

(00:46):
to ask you to dissect the particularsof this case, but the good news,
I guess is that is so extraordinarilyrare. It made headlines nationally.
But in general, how could thishappen? Well, that's a good question,
Gary. I've been around funeral servicemy whole life and I never had

(01:06):
an experience like that before. Soit just I know in Douglas County,
Sarpy County and Lancaster, Lancaster County. Whenever there's a death in a home
or nursing home, there's always eitherhospice or law enforcement involved. So how

(01:26):
that happened, I can't give youan explanation. I've never encountered it.
Is there a state law or isit jurisdiction by jurisdiction regarding what has to
happen to have a person declared dead. It's usually jurisdiction by jurisdiction. Well,
that's interesting, but I will tellyou we deal with all the with

(01:49):
all three of those counties that Imentioned, and they're very thorough. So
what happened in this case, Ican't. I can't tell you. As
I recall the case of my latewife's passing, it has it was someone
from the someone who had the authorityof a coroner. I don't know it
wasn't that coroner, but I don'tremember exactly who it was. But they

(02:12):
had to come to the house andverify it and signed. That is correct,
Yeah, that is correct. Yes, usually the nine one or a
police officer or deputy sheriff. Yeah. So in your long career, you've
never you've never, you've never experiencedanything like this. Well that's good.
No, no, I have notno, no, well so sad case.

(02:36):
Obviously it's hard for that family,certainly, it is. It is,
but our heart goes out to them, and that's that's where the focus
are to be. Now, Oh, no doubt, no doubt. Do
you do you believe? Do youbelieve that? And and the Lincoln Police
are continuing to do their investigation,and from what I've heard, Health and

(02:57):
Human Services at the state level willdo their due diligence and everything. Is
this the kind of thing in youropinion? I'm not asking the specifics of
this case, but if there is, if there is anything other than just
simple human error involved, should therebe prosecution? Well, I would assume
there would be. I mean,it could be incompetence. I don't know.

(03:22):
I don't Yeah, it could be. It could be a lot of
things, Gary, and I hateto speculate, right, Yeah, I
do too. I just it's justincredibly incredible that that could happen. Bill,
Thanks for the time this morning,and you're welcome all your great work.
I do appreciate it. That's BillCutler.