'Dead' Woman Comes To Life In Morgue, Dies Of Hypothermia Hours Later

An elderly Russian woman who was declared dead by the police and moved to a hospital’s morgue, miraculously woke up only to die a few hours later.

The 62-year-old unnamed woman from Amur had been heavily drinking at a party in Vasilyevka, Russia, with her relatives when she appeared to have died. The exact cause of death was not known. The police were called on the scene and did not follow proper protocol before declaring her dead.

"The police officer did not call for an ambulance, as required by instructions. He certified the death on his own, called the undertaker’s and sent the body to the morgue without accompanying documents,” a health official said, New Zealand Herald reported.

Instead, the officer called a hearse to take the woman’s “body” to the morgue. When a female morgue worker tried to tie a tag to the woman’s feet, the “dead body” started moving. "The woman came back to life," the morgue employee said.

The worker wasted no time in calling emergency services. The paramedics arrived soon after and spent 40 minutes trying to resuscitate the woman.

Chief Doctor Mikhail Danilov said the “extreme cold” conditions at the morgue made the woman suffer from “hypothermia.” Although she was rushed to the Belogorsk hospital, she died later on the same day, the region’s health ministry said.

Danilov further added that if the woman was provided proper treatment from the very beginning and been taken to a hospital instead of the morgue, she might have survived.

Police are currently investigating the death of the woman. It is unclear if the police officer accused of not following official measures, has been charged. It was also not reported when the incident took place.

There have been many cases in the past where people who had been declared dead later miraculously turned out to be alive. There were two cases in the past year, where individuals either showed up after their last rites had been performed or woke up shortly before their “dead body” was going to be autopsied.

The first instance happened in Punjab, India in December 2018, where a family identified a body in a homicide case as their daughter, Naina Rani, who they claimed had eloped and subsequently killed by her lover. After the corpse was handed over to the family and funeral was carried out, Rani returned with her supposed lover to the surprise of all her loved ones. Police ruled the case as mistaken identity.

In January 2018, Gonzalo Montoya Jimenez, 29, a prisoner at Villabona Jail, Spain, was declared dead in his cell after he was reportedly not feeling well. His “body” was then transferred in a body bag and sent to the Institute of Forensic Anatomical Institute of Oviedo, where an autopsy was to be conducted.

After his “corpse” had been marked and prepped for autopsy, a medical examiner was shocked to find Jimenez snoring inside his body bag. He was immediately transferred to Central University Hospital of Asturias where he later gained consciousness.