A woman pronounced dead by paramedics was later found to be alive in a mortuary fridge after a deadly crash that killed two other people in South Africa.
The Mirror reported that the crash happened near Carletonville in the early hours of June 24 when a car went out of control and rolled over. The vehicle was then hit by an ambulance responding to the incident.
Distress Alert operations director Gerrit Bradnick said the woman, whose name was not given, was one of several people involved in the crash not far from Johannesburg, the BBC News reported.
The woman from Gauteng and the two other victims were taken to a mortuary in Carletonville, the Times Live reported. Emergency personnel filled out paperwork after the bodies were put in a refrigerator.
When someone returned and examined the bodies, he found that the woman was still alive, Times Live said.
"When he pulled out the woman's body‚ he saw that she was breathing," a mortuary source told Times Live.
The woman was transported to Carletonville Hospital and then transferred to Leratong Hospital in Krugersdorp, where she receiveed treatment for severe head injuries, the Mirror said.
Investigators are trying to figure out how paramedics made the mistake and prevented the woman from getting medical care.
"Paramedics are trained to determine death, not us," a mortuary source said. "You never expect to open a fridge and find someone there alive. Can you image if we had begun the autopsy and killed her?"
Bradnick claimed all the protocols to check for life‚ including looking for signs of a pulse and breathing, were followed, Times Live said.
"Equipment used to determine life showed no form of life on the woman," Bradnick said. "This did not happen because our paramedics are not properly trained. There is no proof of any negligence by our crew."
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