A South African man spent about 24 hours in a morgue this weekend. Not, like, hanging out! No, as a dead body.
Apparently the guy's family couldn't wake him up one morning, and assuming (incorrectly) that he was dead called a private morgue to take care of the body. The morgue, assuming the family could tell a dead body from a live one, put him on ice, and then, lo and behold:
[Eastern Cape health spokesperson Sizwe] Kupelo said the man woke up at 1700 local time (1500 GMT) on Sunday, demanding to be let out of the chilly morgue in Libode village, frightening the attendants on duty.
"At first the men ran for their lives," said Mr Kupelo.
As we all would, I think! Obviously, the attendats later returned to rectify the problem; as it turned out, the man was dehydrated and is apparently now fine. If, we assume, rather cross with his family.
Kupelo says that the country should learn a lesson:"We need to [get] the message across to all South Africans that it is very wrong for them to conclude on their own that a person has died."
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.
Kupelo, the health department spokesman, urged South Africans to call on health officials to confirm that their relatives are really dead.
The man's family was informed that he was alive during a family meeting convened to make funeral arrangements. They're very happy to have him home, Maqolo said.
But Maqolo said he is still trying to recover from the traumatic experience.
"I couldn't sleep last night, I had nightmares," he said. "But today I'm much better."
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May 15th, 2012 05:33 AM
