'Dead' man starts coughing

2005-12-29 21:55

Lisbon - A 95-year-old man was moved from a hospital morgue in Portugal to a care unit after he was heard coughing several hours after a doctor declared him dead, said reports on Thursday.

The reports said family members called an ambulance to bring Manuel Lino to a public hospital in Abrantes, about 120km northeast of Lisbon, on December 1 because he was not feeling well.

According to reports, after Lino arrived at the hospital, the doctor who examined him inside of the ambulance said he could not find a pulse and ordered his body sent to the morgue.

Emergency services

Lino's stepson-in-law, Joao Baco, said: "With great pain we left him there and returned home, where we prepared for the funeral."

Baco said that later that same day, the family received a telephone call from an emergency services worker informing them that Lino was alive.

He said: "We can't understand how someone can make a mistake like this, causing so much pain to a family."

Baco said Lino, who was bedridden before being taken to the hopsital, was discharged on December 7 and spent Christmas with his family.

Hospital officials said they had opened an inquiry into the incident.

- AFP