‘Dead’ woman comes back to life in morgue fridge

A woman pronounced dead in a road accident near
Johannesburg was discovered to be alive by a mortuary worker who
pulled her body out of a fridge.

The unnamed female passenger was one of three people pronounced
dead by paramedics who had been called to reports of an overturned
vehicle on a road outside Carletonville, west of Johannesburg.
After being examined she was taken to a nearby mortuary.

A mortuary employee told The Sowetan what happened next. As his
colleagues started filling in paperwork for the deceased, one
opened the refrigerated unit where cadavers are stored to check the
bodies.

“When he pulled out the woman’s body, he saw that she was
breathing,” the source said.

“You never expect to open a fridge and find
someone there alive,” the employee added. “Can you image if we had
begun the autopsy and killed her?”

The woman, who had suffered serious head
injuries, was rushed to Leratong Hospital in nearby
Krugersdorp, where she remains.

Ambulance company Distress Alert operations
manager Gerrit Bradnick said that the presence of another private
ambulance crew at the scene added to the chaos and that there was
“no evidence” of negligence.

“Equipment used to determine life showed no form
of life on the woman,” he said, adding: “A number of things can
influence the detection of life, including cold, alcohol, drugs and
injuries.”

“This did not happen because our paramedics are
not properly trained.”

Bradnick said the reason for the mis-declaration
was “a mystery”.

“Thinking about her injuries, how long she lay waiting
for the mortuary officials, the trip back to the morgue, then how
she would have been undressed, weighed and then put in the fridge…
we are just thankful she is alive,” he told Times Live.

The Gauteng district health department is to
investigate the incident.