To what can be only described as bizarre, a South African woman who was declared dead after horrific car accident was later found alive in a mortuary fridge. Ambulance company Distress Alert confirmed that the unnamed woman had been certified dead by paramedics at the scene of the pile-up outside Carletonville, southwest of Johannesburg in the early hours on June 24. But when morgue worker checked the body in the fridge, he discovered the woman was breathing. Local reports states that she was soon taken to a hospital where she is now recovering from her ordeal.

Witnesses reported that the car crash left two others dead. When asked about the mis-declaration, the Distress Alert operations manager Gerrit Bradnick told Times Live that their paramedics had declared the woman dead. He claimed that his team had followed all the protocols to check for life and looked for signs of a pulse and breathing. He was quoted saying, ““Equipment used to determine life showed no form of life on the woman.” An investigation on the blunder is being carried out as the woman’s family demand answers. “This did not happen because our paramedics are not properly trained. There is no proof of any negligence by our crew,” added Bradnick.

Hearing to the bizarre discovery, the family was reportedly in shock. “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,” a family member told BBC. This is not the first incident when someone woke up from the dead bed. India too had been in headlines in March this year, when a man who was declared dead by Chhindwara district hospital in Nagpur, Madhya Pradesh was found alive in the mortuary.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 02, 2018 10:23 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).