ASHLAND, Massachusetts - When emergency technicians found the the body of a 39year-old woman slumped in a bathtub next to an empty
bottle of sleeping pills, they assumed she was dead.
So did funeral director John Matarese to whom the
apparent corpse was delivered in a body bag. He
revised his assessment when he heard gurgling noises
coming from the bag. It scared me half to death, he
said. The girl was alive. Police and emergency
technicians were unable to detect any signs of life
when they found the woman three and a half hours
earlier. She apparently overdosed on pills, police
said. The state Department of Public Health is
investigating to determine whether emergency workers
acted properly.
