Man Wakes Up in Morgue, Goes Home

Unlike these stories, here's a story coming out of Africa we can actually believe. Last weekend, a 50-year-old South African who was thought to be dead after suffering an asthma attack woke up in a morgue 21 hours later, almost scaring the workers to death.

Morgue owner Ayanda Maqolo said he sent his driver to collect the body shortly after the family reported the death. Maqolo said he thought the man was around 80 years old. "When he got there, the driver examined the body, checked his pulse, looked for a heartbeat, but there was nothing," Maqolo told the Associated Press. But a day after staff put the body into a locked refrigerated compartment, morgue workers heard someone shouting for help. They thought it was a ghost, the morgue owner said. "I couldn't believe it!" Maqolo said. "I was also scared. But they are my employees and I had to show them I wasn't scared, so I called the police." After police arrived, the group entered the morgue together. "I was glad they had their firearms, in case something wanted to fight with us," Maqolo said. He said the man was pale when they pulled him out. "He asked, 'How did I get here?'" Maqolo said. The health department said the man was then taken to a nearby hospital for observation and later discharged by doctors who deemed him stable.
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The health department is urging emergency workers and the police to do a better job at determining if someone is dead or not. Which is advice the folks in Russia should heed, too.