The state is investigating why emergency medical technicians gave a dead body back to a Springfield family rather than bringing it to the hospital or the morgue.

When EMTs responded to a 911 call, they found Luis Suliveres, 71, alive but gravely ill. They put Suliveres into the ambulance where he died. They then brought his body back inside the family's home.

The Massachusetts Office of Emergency Medical Services says they are now looking into that incident which culminated when a deceased man was declined transportation to the morgue, and was instead returned to his family at his Fort Pleasant Street home.

On April 11, Kenia Colon called 911. EMTs arrived and took Suliveres into the ambulance where he went into cardiac arrest. Because he had a "Do Not Resuscitate" order, the EMTs did not make any attempts to revive him.

But that is where things took a turn. The family says the Emergency Medical Technicians from American Medical Response returned the body back to the house instead of the hospital, morgue, or funeral home. The ambulance company said it would have to be a doctor at the hospital, known as a "medical control," who made the call to terminate the transport.

"How they treated him was not correct. I still don't know if bringing him back into the house was the correct thing to do or not," said Colon. She contacted American Medical Response to complain. She said the ambulance company told her it could not speculate why EMTs did what they did because incidents such as this are rare.

The Office of Emergency Medical Services writes the policies for EMTs in Massachusetts. An online version of the policy states that if a patient is in cardiac arrest, EMTs are to "initiate transport as soon as possible." However, if a patient with a "Do Not Resuscitate" order is in cardiac arrest for more than one minute the patient may be pronounced dead, and doctors tell CBS 3 that it is state law that a dead body cannot be transported by ambulance.

CBS 3 contacted several local ambulance companies that agree with AMR, and say it is the emergency room physician (medical control) who makes the call of whether or not to transport the patient.

The Office of Emergency Medical Services could not comment on the incident but sent the following statement to CBS 3 Tuesday:

"In general, EMTs may call their medical control physician to seek advice on patient care decisions if they have a Comfort Care Form (DNR)."

Privacy laws prevent officials from giving CBS 3 the details of the Suliveres case, but it may come out in court if the family sues.

The family said that no dead loved one should ever be returned to the house - out of respect for the patient and the family.