Indian man found alive after night in morgue freezer

In a real-life incident that can otherwise happen only in reel life, a 45-year-old man, declared 'dead' following a road accident, was found alive despite spending a night in the freezer of a hospital morgue, news agency AFP reported on Sunday. 

Srikesh Kumar was admitted to a clinic in a critical condition after he met with an accident in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad.

The man was later transported to a medical facility where he was declared 'dead' by a doctor attending him.

His body was then taken to a government hospital for a post mortem. "The emergency medical officer examined him. He did not find any signs of life and hence declared him dead," AFP quoted Rajendra Kumar, the hospital's medical superintendent, as saying.

The body was later placed in the morgue freezer for about six hours, till his family arrived.

To everyone's surprise, when a police team and his family came over to initiate the paperwork for the autopsy, the man was found alive. "This is nothing short of a miracle," the official added.

According to the report, the man is in a coma and is undergoing treatment. An investigation has also been launched to determine how the doctors mistakenly declared him dead.

In a similar incident which took place in 2018, a 24-year-old "brain-dead" man taken for autopsy in a government hospital in Madhya Pradesh was found to be alive, according to a PTI report. Himanshu Bharadwaj suffered head injuries after his motorcycle skidded off the road in Chhindwara, following which he was referred to Nagpur for treatment.

According to the report, the doctors at the Nagpur hospital declared Bharadwaj brain dead and sent him back to Chhindwara. 

The man later regained consciousness and all his vitals were found to be stable, an official told the news agency.