Following the bizarre claim of a Durban mother waking up in the Phoenix mortuary after she was allegedly pronounced dead by an alleged ‘intern doctor’ at the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital in KZN, the Department of Health is conducting a full-scale investigation into the serious allegation.

Fifty-two-year-old Constantia Junior Govender, a mother of two boys, has become the subject of this abnormal phenomenon. The woman claims that in early February, she was on her way to her friend’s house when she suffered a blackout.

After several hours, she found herself waking up in the morgue. She has no recollection of being admitted to the hospital or being examined by doctors.

“I woke up on the morgue tray in the mortuary a few hours later on the same day. I was covered with a sheet and was naked and cold. I did not believe that I was dead. I began screaming, and this alerted the mortuary staff. They took me back to the casualty ward at the hospital,” she adds.

When she was taken back to the ward, she questioned the doctor as to why she had been pronounced dead. He informed her that when she was brought to the hospital, she had no pulse and was not responding to the oxygen, despite numerous attempts to resuscitate her.

“I’ve been a patient at Mahatma Gandhi Hospital for several years, and this is the first time I have experienced such a situation. I tried to report the matter on several occasions since the incident to the hospital PRO and CEO however, their offices were always closed,” says the infuriated resident.

The woman, who has a blood clot on her brain and is epileptic, maintains that she is of sound mind and is mentally stable.

“I hope and pray that my illnesses are not used against me in this case of severe negligence from the hospital. Waking up next to dead bodies has not only been traumatic for me, but it is something that I don’t want anyone else to go through. The hospital needs to answer for what happened to me. I have heard that this is not the first time that this sort of incident has happened at the hospital,” she adds.

A prominent doctor who spoke on condition of anonymity said that only a certified medical doctor can pronounce a person dead.

“There is no way a person who has been pronounced dead can wake up. This can only happen if the doctor does not follow certain criteria, which is that the patient’s heart must not be beating, it must seize, there must be zero lung activity, and no brain activity,” she says.

Speaking to the chairperson of the board at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Saroj Govender says she is aware of the case.

“I am waiting for a report and investigation into the matter before anything else is said in the media,” she says.

The eThekwini district liaison officer for the Department of Health, Vusi Mthembu, says the department will issue a statement once the investigation is concluded.