A crematorium worker in Brazil got the surprise of his life when he discovered that a 90-year-old woman he had picked up from a hospital morgue was still alive.
The death of Norma Silveira da Silva had been announced a few hours earlier.
His body was placed in a body bag before being taken to the mortuary.
Jessica Martins Silvi Pereira, a friend who was caring for the nonagenarian, told local media that Ms da Silva was hospitalized in critical condition. The latter had liver problems and was unconscious when she arrived. She was pronounced dead that same evening.
The patient’s death certificate, issued at 11.40pm on Saturday, revealed that the woman had died of “a urinary tract infection”. She was then taken to the mortuary before her loved ones could see her.
The crematorium employee came to collect the body around 1:30 a.m. He opened the body bag and found that the body was unusually warm and showed no signs of rigor mortis.
“When he opened the bag, she was still breathing. Since she was unconscious, she could not call for help,” Pereira said, adding that the nonagenarian was left in the body bag for about two hours, which “almost finished” her.
The 90-year-old woman was pronounced dead a second time. Her new certificate, issued at 5 a.m., said she died of “septic shock.”
The woman’s family plans to sue the hospital.
“This is the kind of negligence I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” Jessica Martins told Silvi Pereira.
The Brazilian Ministry of Health has opened an investigation to clarify the incident.
According to the New York Post