Brazil: Daughter Finds ‘Dead’ Mother Alive in Morgue
EmailRosangela Celestrino was devastated when she got the call to come identify her mother’s body at a hospital in Rio de Janeiro. But when she arrived and the body was pulled out of the refrigerated drawer, she was shocked to find that her mother was still alive.
“I went to kiss my mom, and she was breathing. I began to scream, ‘My mom is alive!’ and everyone looked at me like I was crazy,” she told the Brazilian newspaper O Globo.
Rosa Celestrino de Assis, 60, had spent two hours inside a plastic bag in the refrigerated drawer of a hospital morgue. She had been admitted to the Hospital Estadual Adao Pereira Nunes for a pulmonary infection.
At 7:20 p.m. last Friday, a nurse at the hospital called the on-call doctor when she saw that Celestrino de Assis was not showing any signs of life. The doctor ran some tests, pronounced her dead and had her taken to the morgue. At 10 p.m., when her daughter found her alive, Celestrino de Assis was returned to the intensive care unit.
“She made some sort of movement and was immediately taken to the ICU, intubated again and put on a respirator,” hospital director Manoel Moreira Filho told O Globo.
The nurse who first suspected Celestrino de Assis was dead has been fired, and the doctor who pronounced her dead has resigned. The family has made a police complaint. If negligence is proved, the family could sue for personal injury and if the patient were to die, the family could sue for manslaughter.
Celestrino de Assis’ shocked daughter is still struggling to understand what happened.
“You go to the hospital to pick up someone you know — [someone] who put you on the earth — and not only is she in the cold drawer of a hospital, but when I opened it, I saw that she was alive,” Celestrino said.
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Funny they fire the nurse the one that is NOT ultimately responsible for it. the doctor was. Also this has happened before, a patient codes and dies another patient codes and dies in the next room, the first patient that died suddenly starts breathing on his/her own. I dont call it a medical mistake i say “death” had the wrong room number !
Posted by: Parick | September 26, 2011, 7:05 pm 7:05 pm
I agree Parick, how insulting that they fired the nurse but the doctor was allowed to “resign.” The nurse suspected she was dead, the DOCTOR called it. The nurse has no authority to declare anyone dead.
Posted by: Faith | September 26, 2011, 7:15 pm 7:15 pm
This is beyond sad and bad but the nurse got fired and the doctor was able to resign not fair not fair at all because he could get another job elsewhere but it will difficult for her.
I can’t even imagine how the daughter most of felt but Thank God she was able to save her mother from certain death.
Posted by: Carol | September 26, 2011, 7:52 pm 7:52 pm
The nurse did the correct thing in this case — called the doctor to pronounce the patient. She should not have been fired. The doctor, on the other hand, clearly botched it. It’s a good thing the daughter discovered her mom was alive so quickly, or the mom might have died of hypothermia from her time in the morgue’s freezer.
Posted by: Mike | September 26, 2011, 8:48 pm 8:48 pm
What do we have a lot of nurses posting here today? Let me tell you something, yes the Doctor had to resign for making the wrong judgement, and yes, the nurse should have known the patient was not dead.
You are judging another countries medical system by your perceptions of our own – the fact is, in many countries the nurses are your first line of support and if they can’t tell alive or dead, yes they need to be fired.
Posted by: RoboBobo | September 26, 2011, 9:55 pm 9:55 pm
Sounds like what will be happening after one of the GOTea candidates is in the WH! Don’t even have to wait for them to die to dispose of the bodies! Think of the savings!
Posted by: Allan J Krueger | September 26, 2011, 10:26 pm 10:26 pm
I think it was right for the doctor to resign, but the nurse should not have been fired. She was not the person who ran the tests or pronounced her dead. Also, I can’t imagine going through that as the daughter- being called to the hospital to identify your mother’s body, only to find that she’s alive? Yes it’s relieving, but also traumatic.
Posted by: Jamie McCandless | September 27, 2011, 2:09 am 2:09 am
Don’t they know how to take a pulse in Brazil? Neither one of them needs to be working in the medical field.
Posted by: howdymo1 | September 27, 2011, 3:07 am 3:07 am
First of all, it’s not common, but patient’s can “look” dead, and even present clinically that they have died. It has happened before.
Posted by: Krystle | September 27, 2011, 1:08 pm 1:08 pm
Well, at least they weren’t in the process of being embalmbed by the mortician. That would end any chance of her mother coming alive again. Still, what a scary yet beautiful thought that someone that is pronounced dead is alive again!
Posted by: Rick | September 28, 2011, 8:11 am 8:11 am
As long as we continue to rely on primitive notions of ‘life’ and ‘death’ and think in terms of an almost magical point of transition between them, then we will continue to see cases such as this. The current medico-legal necessity of declaring ‘death’ does not serve us well.
It is WAY passed the time we adopted a more meaningful viewpoint.
Posted by: T.Theodorus Ibrahim | September 28, 2011, 12:02 pm 12:02 pm
OMG, Glad she was alive, and her daughter found her. god bless them, and watch over her mother now. Stupid doctor, and dumb nurse. Maybe that the cold feezer, in the morgue, helped the woman, to get better, breathing cool air, combat the infection, and I guess it kept her alive, and lowered any fever she might have had.Sort of presreves you. Just happy she got out of there in time. I would not have gone back to the same hospital, that is for sure! Doctors, and Nurses, better wait a hour or more before anyone is declared dead, and no imbalment yet either. thank God, she did not get that far yet. GIGI
Posted by: Ginger Carco | September 29, 2011, 4:28 pm 4:28 pm
People are pronounced dead, a lot lately, but the doctors forget 1 thing. wait a reasonable hour, or more, to make sure the person, is indeed dead. Too many things can happen, like people that llok dead but have a certain disease that makes them stop breathing for a while. I say wait, keep them cool, and make sure, before declaring anything. Seriously, people wake up from comas, and can as we have seen very well wake up from something that only mimics death state, so be sure!!!
Posted by: Ginger Carco | September 29, 2011, 4:35 pm 4:35 pm
My grandmother died and i hope to find her alive.. i miss her so much.. :’(
Posted by: ra'kyhme | September 30, 2011, 1:39 pm 1:39 pm
I AGREE THE NURSE SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN FIRED! THAT’S JUST WRONG, SHE DID NOTHING WRONG AT LEAST THAT YOUR REPORTED
Posted by: Anita | October 11, 2011, 4:08 pm 4:08 pm