A Polish beekeeper passed out after being stung and woke up inside a coffin.

Jozef Guzy had been pronounced dead after suffering a suspected heart attack and was about to be sealed up in a coffin when the undertaker discovered a faint pulse.

An ambulance was called and a doctor declared that the 76-year-old had died.

“There were no signs of life when his wife called the ambulance," according to Jerzy Wisniewski , of the Katowice Regional Ambulance Service.

'The patient was not breathing, there was no heart beat, the body had cooled - all are the characteristics of death.

Three hours later, an undertaker arrived to take the body away.

He was placed in a coffin by undertaker Darius Wysluchato until Mr Guzy's wife, Ludmilla, asked him to retrieve her late husband's necklace before closing the lid.

As Mr Wys?uchato fiddled with the watch chain he happened to touch Mr Guzy's neck and detected a pulse.

He said: 'I touched around the neck artery and suddenly realised he asn't dead after all. I checked again and shouted, "It's a pulse!"

'I had a friend check and he noticed the man was breathing. God, it was a miracle!"

The same ambulance that had earlier called Mr Guzy's death rushed back to the scene before admitting the pensioner to intensive care.

After several weeks he made a full recovery.

Doctors have concluded that it was a case of suspended animation.

The doctor who falsely diagnosed him as dead has apologised.

Mr Guzy added, “The undertaker saved my life. The first thing I did when I got out of hospital was take him a pot of honey.”

Belfast Telegraph