Hospital Stunned by Recovery of Woman, 86--From Morgue

When a national health magazine rated Albany Medical Center as the best hospital in New York state earlier this week, no one claimed it could raise the dead.

But Wednesday afternoon a worker at the hospital’s morgue removed a body bag containing an 86-year-old woman from the morgue’s 40-degree refrigerator--and heard breathing inside.

Hospital officials said Friday that the woman, Mildred Clarke of Albany, was listed in critical condition. A friend said Clarke was able to blink her eyes in response to questions.

“We’re at a loss for words,” said Greg McGarry, the hospital spokesman.

An emergency medical team was called to Clarke’s apartment Wednesday afternoon after a managing agent for the complex, inhabited mostly by senior citizens, found her unconscious and reported that she was rigid, cold, had no pulse and was not breathing.

“Her coloring was blue, she was not moving,” said Lori Goodman-DiPietro, the agent. “You looked at this woman and assumed she was dead.”

Goodman-DiPietro was not the only one. She said two emergency medical technicians from the Albany Fire Department, a police officer, the county coroner and two morgue attendants examined Clarke with little doubt that the woman was dead.

The emergency crew members “listened to her heart through a stethoscope and found that as far as they were concerned she had expired,” said County Coroner Philip Furie. Furie, an elected official and not a medical doctor, was also called to the apartment. “As far as touching her, she was cold as ice, right down by her face, and also she was stiff as a board.”

Furie declared Clarke dead at 3:30 p.m. EST, and she was taken to the morgue at Albany Medical Center. At 5:20 p.m., about 80 minutes after Clarke arrived, the hospital was contacted by a funeral home with which Clarke had arranged for her service.

A morgue employee, Herman Thomas, was removing the body bag from the refrigerator when he thought he heard breathing coming from inside. He opened the bag, confirmed that Clarke was breathing, and immediately called the emergency room. Two doctors and a nurse put Clarke on a ventilator and rushed her to the emergency room.

McGarry said doctors still don’t know what’s wrong with her.