The Polish woman was immediately freed from the body bag she had been put in, doctors contacted her family

Nov 14, 2014 12:32 GMT  ·  By

Earlier this week, a 91-year-old woman in Poland had the shock of a lifetime when waking up from a fairly prolonged slumber only to find that somebody had thought her dead and had stored her body in a bag in a morgue freezer.

Then again, it's safe to assume that staff at the morgue were equally shocked to find that one of the bodies they were supposed to keep in storage until their families claimed them was not a corpse, but a living and breathing human being.

How the woman ended up at the morgue

Information shared with the public by the police officers in charge of investigating this case says that it was the woman's doctor in the town of Ostrow Lubelski in eastern Poland who mistakenly declared her dead.

By the looks of it, the doctor told the woman's family that she was dead after examining her body and determining that she was not breathing and did not have a pulse.

“I was sure she was dead,” the doctor, named Wieslawa Czyz, told the press in an interview, as cited by Mirror. “I'm stunned, I don't understand what happened. Her heart had stopped beating, she was no longer breathing,” he added.

Shortly after she was pronounced dead, the 91-year-old woman, identified as Janina Kolkiewicz, was taken to the local morgue. Here, she was put in a body bag and staff had her body stored in a freezer.

Waking up in a body bag in the morgue

It is understood that, before waking up and starting to move about in the body bag, 91-year-old Janina Kolkiewicz spent about 11 hours in cold storage at the morgue where she was taken after doctor Wieslawa Czyz told her family that she was dead.

Hence, when the woman opened her eyes and was freed by morgue staff, she was feeling quite cold. In fact, word has it that the first thing the old woman did after she left the cold storage room was ask for a cup of hot tea.

Soon enough, morgue staff contacted her family, and seeing how she wasn't experiencing any health trouble, 91-year-old Janina Kolkiewicz was allowed to return home. Here, her family offered her soup and pancakes.

As mentioned, police officers in Poland are currently investigating this case. For the time being, it is unclear whether or not doctor Wieslawa Czyz is facing any legal charges for having mistakenly declared the woman dead.

The 91-year-old's family says that, seeing how she is suffering from late-stage dementia, Janina Kolkiewicz hasn't quite figured out what happened to her.

91-year-old woman mistakenly declared dead (5 Images)

Woman is Poland mistakenly declared dead
The 91-year-old woke up in the morgueShe was cold, so she asked for a cup of tea
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