Elderly woman is found alive in morgue after hospital declares death in SC

A 90-year-old woman, who was admitted to the Hospital Regional de São José, in Greater Florianópolis, was found alive in the hospital’s morgue after being declared dead on the death certificate. The case gained repercussion after the victim’s son sought out a deputy, who reproduced the complaint on social media. The elderly woman died about 30 hours after being taken to the room.

The victim’s son, Renato Godoy, told the deputy that his mother was hospitalized on Friday (24) and that the following day, he received the news that his mother had passed away. After signing the documentation at the hospital, he was called by the funeral home employee, saying that his mother was alive.

“On Saturday night the hospital called and reported that she had passed away at around 11:40 pm, I did all the paperwork and called the funeral home. And when I got home in the early hours of the morning, the guy from the funeral home called me telling me to go back to the hospital because my mother was alive,” she says.

The Santa Catarina Health Department was contacted by CNN and has not returned to date. In a note, the hospital says that the patient was undergoing palliative treatment. The health unit also highlights that it has opened an investigation process to investigate the case. Read the note in full :

The management of the Homero de Miranda Gomes Regional Hospital, in São José, announces that the patient was undergoing palliative treatment within our unit. We inform that an investigation process was opened to determine who was responsible for the incident and the Medical Ethics Committee and the Death Committee were notified.