Sleeping man ‘woke up inside morgue’

Many people have nightmares about being buried alive and plenty of horror movies have covered the topic in gruesome detail.

But the terrifying fear came true for one South African man, who woke up inside a morgue after his family wrongly thought he had died, the Sapa news agency reports.

The 50-year-old male from Libode was actually alive and kicking, but his relatives had called an undertaker when they were unable to rouse him from his sleep.

He was taken to a mortuary and placed inside the cold morgue for almost 24 hours before he woke up and started screaming for help.

Unfortunately, the staff initially ran away in fear that a ghost was present, but when they realised what had happened the man was rescued and taken to a nearby hospital.

A spokesperson from the Eastern Cape Department of Health – set up in 1994 – commented: "You begin to ask yourself how many other people have died like that in a morgue."

It should serve as a message to reform the current system in South Africa, whereby some people simply conclude a person is dead without medical confirmation, the representative added.

Posted by Simon Williams