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ALVIN, Texas (FOX 26) - She was pronounced dead more than once only for family members to be told she's actually still alive. Three weeks later, the funeral home is still refusing to release her body. Now the family is demanding answers.
“I feel like, kind of cheated out of a decent closure,” cries Landra Esry’s mom Kimberly Lockett.
On June 29, 2017, Esry was in her Alvin apartment and became very ill. “She goes I'm hurting so bad right now. She goes I can't even get in the car to go to the hospital,” explains Lockett.
The mother of four began vomiting, having seizures and by the time paramedics arrived she wasn't breathing. ”They thought they lost her at one point but she come back. She started breathing again,” Lockett adds.
Esry, who was born with Cerebral Palsy, beat the odds at birth and thrived for 39 years but when she was rushed to Bay Area Regional Medical Center last month, “They kept coming back saying something different. Then they come back and told me she had passed,” says Esry’s mom.
“I would say about a good hour, hour and a half later the Charge Nurse come in and said I've got news, she's alive. We were like what? She said I went in to clean her and she was breathing,” says Esry’s sister in law Lisa Bunch. Esry didn't speak but she was breathing. Twelve hours later the 39-year-old was pronounced dead again, for good this time.
“Oh my goodness it's like a rollercoaster,” cries Lockett.
Esry passed three weeks ago. Kimberly Lockett says the hospital won't sign her daughter's death certificate so the funeral home won't release her body. “It's not my daughter. It's her remains but it's just (a matter of) respect.”
“It's just not right. It's not fair to sit there and see her at a funeral home for three weeks in a cooler,” adds Bunch.
Bay Area Regional released the following statement:
The hospital has no direct role in completing a death certificate. We do notify the medical examiner of deaths that meet certain criteria, as outlined by Texas law. A cause of death must be listed on the death certificate before it can be completed. That cause of death must be determined by a physician or the medical examiner’s office. We have confirmed that the death certificate has been signed in this case and we are looking at what we can do, as a hospital, to help improve communications between the medical examiner’s office, physicians and the family.
The family says they are now told Esry died of Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy known as Broken Heart Syndrome.
Esry can finally be laid to rest but after three weeks loved ones say they won't be able to have a viewing.