'Corpse' wakes up in Kenyan morgue day after being declared dead

The man's family had started making funeral arrangements when he awoke

A man in Kenya has woken up in a morgue after he was pronounced dead (Digital Vision/Getty Images)

Mortuary workers in Kenya were shocked when a man woke up the day after he was declared dead.

Authorities have since launched an investigation into how Paul Mutora was mistakenly put into the morgue at Naivasha District Hospital, north-west of the capital Nairobi.

Mortuary workers ran away when the body moved and began breathing, it was reported.

Mr Mutora had attempted to take his life by ingesting insecticide and was pronounced dead on Wednesday night.

The doctor in charge of Mr Mutora’s reawakening said that it is suspected that the drug slowed his heartbeat, which may have led to him being mistaken as dead.

“This might have confused medical personnel, but the victim was saved before he could be embalmed,” Dr Joseph Mburu, the superintendent in charge of Naivasha District Hospital told the Kenyan Standard.

The newspaper also reported that Mr Mutora’s funeral arrangements had begun after his relatives visited the morgue on Tuesday morning to view his body.

“But in the afternoon we were informed, he was alive and were left in shock,” his father said.

A witness told the Kenyan Star newspaper that when employees heard noises inside the cold room they “took to their heels screaming”.

“This was a mistake from the start and I apologise to my father,” Mr Mutora said.