The 45-year-old hawker’s body had been found in a trench at the Machakos bus park. Police retrieved the body and took it to the mortuary. But on arrival at the morgue, attendants found he was still breathing as they prepared his body for safe custody.
His colleagues who had accompanied the police to the mortuary scampered for safety when the man woke up. Mortuary attendants rushed him to the nearby casualty ward where he was put on a drip, but he later died.
Health problem
Friends and relatives could not hold back tears as they saw him being returned to the mortuary for the second time. Efforts by doctors to save the man in the casualty ward were futile as he was said to be too weak to regain full consciousness.
His friends told The Standard that prior to his death, he had complained of chest pain. They said the man had been warned against drinking because he had a health problem. The friends said the man had been lying in the trench for more than six hours after a drinking binge. They were quick to add that had he been rescued early, he would not have died.
Incidents like this have become common but experts blame the rise on misdiagnosis. Recently in Naivasha, a man ‘resurrected’ at Naivasha District Hospital after lying in the morgue for 15 hours.
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