Being buried alive is many people's worst fear. Only one step short of that nightmare, however, is being locked away in a morgue refrigerator. That's the terrifying reality a woman in South Africa found herself in following a car crash where she was incorrectly declared dead.
After an accident in Gauteng province, South Africa, workers from the ambulance company Distress Alert declared the woman (who remains anonymous) displayed "no form of life."
When a morgue worker went to check on her body, however, he found the woman's corpse was doing the one thing it should never do: breathing.
The woman immediately received treatment from the nearby forensic officers and is now being treated in a hospital near Johannesburg.
The woman's family understandably desires some answers NOW. Speaking under the condition of anonymity, one family member commented:
As a family we won't talk about this unless the police, paramedics and the mortuary officials who were involved are present. We need answers.
He continued:
The issue is that we need answers, that's all we want and we don't have any clarity now.
Gerrit Bradnick, operations manager at Distress Alert, says there is "no proof of any negligence" regarding his company and also claims:
This did not happen because our paramedics are not properly trained.
The accident, which occurred on Sunday, 24 June, left two other people dead...supposedly.
Unfortunately, this isn't an isolated incident. Earlier this year, an inmate at a Spanish prison woke up mere ours before he was scheduled for an autopsy. 3 doctors had examined him and signed off on his death.
South Africa has also hosted several unlikely revivals. In 2011, a "dead" man woke up, screaming, in a morgue, and just last year, another car crash victim was declared dead before he was found breathing the next day (though he did pass away 5 hours after that).
Remember, morticians: always check twice before declaring someone dead.
H/T - BBC, Getty Images
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