A 91-year-old Polish woman miraculously woke up in a morgue's storage complaining of feeling cold after having been declared dead and stored in a body bag for 11 hours, BBC News reported. A police investigation has been launched.
Janina Kolkiewicz was declared dead after an examination by the family doctor in the eastern Polish town of Ostrow Lubelski and sent to a mortuary while her family planned her funeral, officials said.
But to the astonishment of the funeral home's staff, they found Kolkiewicz squirming inside the body bag when they opened the refrigerator to check on it.
Once they zipped it open, they discovered Kolkiewicz to be awake and complaining of feeling cold.
She has now returned to her family's home where she ate two pancakes and a bowl of hot soup to warm up, reported Polish newspaper Dziennik Wschodni.
The ordeal began when the woman's niece, Bogumila Kolkiewicz, came back home one morning and discovered that her aunt was not breathing and did not have a pulse. Immediately, she summoned a doctor, who examined the 91-year-old and declared her dead.
Dr. Wieslawa Czyz wrote out a death certificate and Bogumila began planning her aunt's funeral, which was set to occur two days later, UK MailOnline reported.
However, the mortuary staff called some hours later to report that the woman was not yet dead, her niece told Dziennik Wschodni.
Following the incident, both Czyz and the woman's niece claimed to be in shock, expressing their surprise at learning that Kolkiewicz was alive, they told the television channel TVP.
"I was sure she was dead," Czyz said. "I'm stunned, I don't understand what happened. Her heart had stopped beating. She was no longer breathing."
Although Kolkiewicz said she was feeling "normal" and "fine" after returning home, her niece claimed that the 91-year-old had no idea quite how close to death she came.
"My aunt has no inkling of what happened since she has late-stage dementia," Bogumila told local media.
Meanwhile, the woman's death certificate has been declared invalid while police authorities have started an investigation into the "resurrection" case.
