KZN: Woman wakes up in mortuary after being declared dead

Constantia Junior Govender, an elderly woman from Phoenix in KwaZulu-Natal has claimed that she woke up after being declared dead at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital.

The 52-year-old woman told Phoenix Tabloid that she didn’t remember how she ended up at Mahatma Gandhi Hospital.

Govender said she was on her way to a friend’s house when she blacked out on the road and woke up at the Phoenix mortuary “feeling cold, naked and covered with a sheet from a corpse bed”.

PHOENIX WOMAN ‘WAKES UP FROM THE DEAD’

Govender told the publication that she had no idea that she had been pronounced dead and woke up feeling very cold from the hard surface that she was laying on with her body covered and ready to be ‘processed’.

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The woman said she was deeply disturbed at the sight and when she saw that there was a body bag from where she lay and next to that another dead person who was covered with a sheet.

She was reportedly told that when she had arrived at the same hospital earlier, she had no pulse and was administered oxygen but “flatlined” three times. She was further informed that after 45 minutes, staff called for the mortuary van.

Govender said she was further told that this was not the first time something like this had happened.

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KZN HEALTH DENIES GOVENDER’S CLAIMS

Speaking to IOL, KwaZulu-Natal Health spokesperson, Ntokozo Maphisa said official records revealed that no such body was ever fetched from anywhere in Phoenix in April, or at any other time that month.

Maphisa said there was also no body that went missing after admission at any time from the Phoenix Medico-Legal Mortuary.

“During April 2023, there were a total of eight Indian females that were admitted. Seven of them were identified and released to families. Of the eight bodies, seven were of adults, and one was of an 8-month-old baby. The body that has not been identified yet is still at the mortuary, awaiting identification,” he said.

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This article was originally published by NOKWANDA NCWANE.