Nonagenarian pronounced dead wakes up in mortuary

A German doctor is being charged by prosecutors for negligent bodily harm for declaring a 92-year-old woman dead, only for her to wake up in a refrigerated room at a funeral home.

According to Essen prosecutor, Birgit Juergens, the doctor, 53, whose name is undisclosed in line with privacy regulations, could face anything from a fine to a prison sentence if found guilty.

The doctor is alleged to have pronounced the seriously ill woman dead in March after a caregiver found her without a pulse and not breathing at a retirement home.

That evening, a worker at the funeral home where she had been taken heard a scream from the refrigeration room and discovered the woman alive.

The woman died two days later in hospital from heart disease unrelated to the incident.