Living dead

By David Pescovitz at 3:44 pm Thursday, Jan 27

Larry Green of Durham, North Carolina was sent to the morgue after he was hit by a car Monday night and declared dead. A few hours later, a medical examiner in the morgue unzipped the body bag and noticed that Green was breathing. He's now in critical condition. The four paramedics who responded to the accident have been suspended with pay. From the Associated Press:

Though state law outlines how people can be declared brain dead, no statute says who is authorized to declare a person dead, said Dr. John Butts, chief medical examiner for North Carolina.

"As a practical matter, people are regularly proclaimed dead by medical personnel who are not physicians," Butts said.

Link