Grave mistake: shock as Chinese family discover ‘dead’ relative is still alive just days after burying another body wrongly released by hospital
- Family in southern China even held elaborate three-day funeral without noticing they were ‘mourning’ for the wrong deceased person
- Hospital chiefs in negotiations over compensation as official investigation underway into what happened
A Chinese family who buried the dead relative of someone else after hospital staff released the wrong body have discovered that the woman they thought they had lost is still alive.
The bizarre mix-up even led to the receiving family – who were so upset and confused by the “death” that they failed to notice they had the wrong body – held an elaborate three-day funeral before laying her to rest, mainland media reported.
After burying the wrong body – released to them by staff at a hospital in southern China – the family of an 87-year-old woman, surnamed Yin, from Nanning, Guangxi autonomous region, whom they thought they had buried were in for a shock.
On December 30, staff at the Nanning Beiji Hospital broke the news that Yin was still alive and that the woman they had buried was someone else, according to a relative of Yin, surnamed Chen.
Yin’s family and the hospital are now negotiating a compensation deal and an official investigation by the municipal health commission is under way.