Woman declared dead Saturday dies Monday

Frances Foster

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A 77-year-old Brooklyn woman who was mistakenly pronounced dead by emergency workers over the weekend died early Monday morning at a hospital.

An investigation into Saturday's mistaken death pronouncement was under way by the New York City Fire Department.

Two Emergency Medical Services technicians found Frances Foster unconscious on her bathroom floor Saturday after police responded to a missing person's report.

She was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:21 p.m. and the technicians left the scene.

However hours later, an investigator from the medical examiner's office sent by police determined Foster was still alive, authorities said. He called 911.

An aide at the medical examiner's office refused to say whether Foster was placed in a body bag.

Foster was taken to New York Methodist Hospital, where she remained in critical condition until her death at 1:03 a.m. Monday. The hospital did not release a cause of death.

Following the mix-up, the two EMS technicians were placed on desk duty. Their fate depends on the outcome of an internal investigation by the fire department, said EMS spokesman David Billing.

EMS technicians are licensed by the New York Department of Health, which will likely hold its own internal investigation, said Billing.