They were dead wrong.
In a scene straight out of a George Romero zombie movie, a Paraguay mother miraculously sprang back to life in a body bag after being pronounced dead by doctors earlier that day.
Gladys Rodríguez de Duarte, who suffers from ovarian cancer, had been admitted to San Fernando Clinic in Coronel Oviedo on Saturday morning after experiencing a severe spike in blood pressure, reports local newspaper ABC Color. A mere two hours later, her treating physician, Dr. Heriberto Vera, mistakenly declared the 46-year-old woman dead of cervical cancer, and handed a death certificate to her husband and daughter.
Undertakers transported what they presumed to be Duarte’s cadaver to Duarte e Hijos funeral home, whereupon they noticed the body moving inside the bag.
The “resurrected” patient was rushed to intensive care, where she is currently in “delicate but stable” condition, according to ABC Color.
Needless to say, Duarte’s premature death declaration didn’t sit well with her enraged family. Her husband, Maximino Duarte Ferreira, has reportedly filed a complaint against the doctor, claiming that medics purposefully announced her passing because they no longer wanted to treat her.
“He assumed she was dead and handed her naked to me like an animal with her death certificate,” fumed Ferreira to local media. He claimed that “they disconnected her and passed her off to the funeral home” without even trying to revive her.
However, doctors deny any foul play. “He tried to revive her, but it was unsuccessful,” said fellow physician Dr. Catalino Fabio, adding that Vera was unable to locate Duarte’s pulse. She speculated that the patient may have suffered from catalepsy, a condition characterized by muscle rigidity and a complete lack of response to outside stimuli, according to Science Direct.
This isn’t the first time a patient has appeared to rise from the dead. In 2015, Queens medics mistakenly declared a distraught woman deceased after she shot herself in the head — then flabbergasted cops discovered she was still alive and transported her to a hospital, where she eventually succumbed to her injuries.