In India, a man who had been declared dead by a doctor has been placed in a morgue freezer but was discovered alive by his family the next day.
Sreekesh Kumar, 40, was found alive after being wrongly declared dead by doctors in Morabadad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
He was in critical condition after he was hit by a motorcycle in Moradabad. Upon arrival at a private medical facility, he was declared dead and transported to a government hospital.
The medical staff was later shocked when Kumar showed signs of life as police arrived to identify the body and arrange an autopsy with his relatives.
According to a report by Indian news outlet The Tribune, six hours after being placed in the freezer, Kumar’s family members went to view his body to identify him and noticed that he was breathing and moving.
A video of him lying on a hospital gurney that was taken by a member of his family has since been circulating online. Recording the discovery, Kumar’s sister-in-law Madhu Bala shouted: “He’s not dead, in fact far from it. How did this happen? Look, he wants to say something, he is breathing.”
She said when feeling his cheek, she noticed his skin felt warm before then discovering he was breathing. She described the emotions at the moment as “happiness and horror.”
Dr. Rajendra Kumar, the hospital’s medical superintendent, told Agence France-Presse: “The emergency medical officer examined him. He did not find any signs of life and hence declared him dead.”
“When a police team and his family came over to initiate the paperwork for the autopsy, he was found alive. This is nothing short of a miracle,” he added.
Dr. Shiv Singh, the chief medical superintendent of Moradabad said, “The emergency medical officer had seen the patient at around 3 am and there was no heartbeat.”
He continued: “He told me he had examined the man multiple times. Therefore he was declared dead. In the morning, a police team and his family found him alive. A probe has been ordered and our priority, at the moment, is to save his life. Sometimes there are difficulties faced while declaring someone dead. We can’t call it negligence until we have all the reports in our hand.”
The Times of India reported that Kumar was likely in the morgue’s freezer for close to seven hours.
The news outlet interviewed a doctor at the hospital who requested anonymity, who said Kumar’s life was likely saved because power outages in the hospital kept switching the freezer which is usually kept at temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit on and off.
But the 45-year-old died late on Tuesday after battling for his life for five days at a hospital in the city of Meerut, where he was having treatment for injuries from the road crash.
Dr. Singh said: “He died late Tuesday at the hospital after slipping into a coma due to a clot in the brain. He was on ventilator support and critical throughout.”
Kumar’s brother Satyanand Gautam said he was showing signs of recovery during the treatment but died after a brain clot pushed him into a coma. Gautam has said: “We will take action against everyone responsible for his death.”
Kumar’s sister-in-law, Bala, who claimed her brother-in-law was almost killed by being put in a freezer, said that his family will lodge a complaint against the doctors for negligence.
Police are launching an inquiry as to how Kumar could have wrongly been declared dead and placed in a freezer. Dr. Singh also said that the district’s health department is now investigating the matter.
Dr. Singh said that the initial investigation has revealed that the patient was in “suspended animation”, a medical state in which vital body organs temporarily cease to function, almost imitating death.
Kumar, an electrician working in Morada, Uttar Pradesh, was a married man and the youngest of five brothers.
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