Horror! Dead Man Comes Back To Life After Family ‘Notice Him Breathing’ In Morgue

By Our Reporter

Relatives saying their final goodbyes at a morgue were left horrified when the “corpse” they had come to mourn suddenly began breathing.

In what doctors are calling an extraordinary case, a 90-year-old man in Palmeira dos Índios, Brazil, was pronounced dead — only to apparently “come back to life” hours later inside the morgue.

According to reports, the man had been admitted to hospital on September 1 and suffered cardio-respiratory arrest in the early hours of the following morning. Despite repeated resuscitation attempts, he remained unresponsive and was declared dead in the emergency room.

His body was then transferred to the hospital morgue. But when his relatives arrived around 6 a.m. to view the body, they made a chilling discovery — the man was breathing.

Penedo FM reports that hospital staff immediately conducted fresh examinations, which confirmed that the patient had both a pulse and vital signs. He was quickly wheeled out of the morgue and readmitted to the Emergency Care Unit (UPA).

Unfortunately, despite the brief glimmer of hope, the man remained unresponsive and passed away again in the early hours of the same day.

The incident has sent shockwaves through the hospital and wider community, prompting questions about how such an error could have occurred.

In a statement, the UPA management insisted that “no technical, medical or nursing errors were identified in the patient’s care” and maintained that all protocols had been followed. The facility pledged full cooperation with authorities and confirmed that the case would be reviewed by the Patient Safety Unit and the Death Review Committee.

A Rare Medical Phenomenon

Experts say such incidents, though rare, are not entirely unheard of. The so-called “Lazarus effect” — medically referred to as autoresuscitation — occurs when someone pronounced dead from cardiac arrest suddenly shows signs of life, usually within 10 minutes of CPR being stopped.

The Cleveland Clinic explains that autoresuscitation is believed to result from a delayed return of spontaneous circulation, though its exact cause remains unclear. Sadly, most patients who experience the phenomenon do not survive long after the brief revival.

History is peppered with similar cases. In 1937, Frenchman Angelo Hays was declared dead after a motorcycle crash, only to be found alive when his body was exhumed days later for insurance purposes — an event that sparked widespread fascination and debate.