Man Declared Dead By Multiple Doctors Woke Up Shortly Before His Autopsy

A man woke up just hours before his autopsy, despite being declared dead by three doctors.

Think of your biggest fear. It might be a fear of blood, confined spaces or waking up before a surgery.

Well, this story nearly ended up being all three, because Gonzalo Montoya Jiménez literally woke up in a morgue shortly before his autopsy.

We aren't joking.

Patient in a morgue (Alamy)

At the time, Jiménez was incarcerated for robbery in the Asturias Central Penitentiary in northwest Spain.

The unsettling incident occurred on January 7, 2018, when Jiménez was found 'dead' in his cell.

After Jiménez was found unresponsive, the prison's two on-duty doctors declared him dead, and a forensic doctor subsequently inspected his body and confirmed this.

Jiménez was then moved to a hospital mortuary while doctors prepared for autopsy.

Just a few hours before the autopsy was set to commence, snoring was heard from inside his body bag. That's right, snoring.

According to an El Español report, 'Forensic doctors began to hear noises coming from inside the bag. Montoya was not dead. Quite the opposite.'

Surgeons prepping (Alamy)

The report continued, 'The forensic [pathologist] proceeded to open the bag and found the inmate still alive.'

Jiménez even had pen marks from where planned incisions were to take place. Yikes.

The prisoner was then transferred to another hospital to recover, and was reportedly in a stable condition.

A spokesperson from the Spanish Prison Service said, 'I can't comment on what happened at the Institute of Legal Medicine but three doctors have seen clinical signs of death so it's still not clear at the moment exactly why this occurred.'

A police source explained, 'We got the original call asking us to attend the jail because an inmate had died and acted according to protocol,' meaning that Jiménez was taken 'away for an autopsy'.

Autopsy room (Alamy)

'The second call that came in asking for police assistance in taking him to hospital and keeping watch over him while he was there for obvious security reasons obviously came as a bit of a surprise,' they added.

While it is not clear what happened to Jiménez and why he was declared dead, according to reports he had complained of feeling unwell that day.

It is said that his body showed signs of cyanosis, which is a discolouration of the skin due to a lack of oxygen, as well as rigor mortis, a process that typically takes place when someone's body decays.

Officials suggested that the incident could have been a case of catalepsy, where the body enters a seizure state and loses consciousness/sensation.

Well, that's gonna keep us up.

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