A man, presumed dead and brought to a mortuary in the Indian city of Mumbai on Sunday, gave the facility’s staff a considerable shock when he woke up a few minutes before they were about to conduct a postmortem examination.

The 50-year-old homeless man was declared dead by a doctor on Sunday afternoon and sent immediately to the morgue despite rules that stipulate a two-hour waiting period after death, the BBC reported.

The head of Mumbai’s Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, Dr. Suleiman Merchant, told reporters on Monday that doctors didn’t detect a pulse or heartbeat on the man, whom doctors named only as Prakash. His face was also reportedly covered in maggots, and local media reported that he was found lying at a bus stop.

“Maggots eat human tissues. Usually dead bodies have maggots,” Merchant said. “He must have been lying around for at least six or seven days.”

Prakash is currently stable and is undergoing treatment for malnourishment and an ear infection at the hospital’s intensive care unit, the BBC says.

[BBC]

Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Now Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Write to Rishi Iyengar at rishi.iyengar@timeasia.com.