A woman pronounced dead in a road accident near Johannesburg was discovered to be alive by a mortuary worker who pulled her body out of a fridge.

The unnamed female passenger was one of three people pronounced dead by paramedics who had been called to reports of an overturned vehicle on a road outside Carletonville, west of Johannesburg. After being examined she was taken to a nearby mortuary.

A mortuary employee told The Sowetan what happened next. As his colleagues started filling in paperwork for the deceased, one opened the refrigerated unit where cadavers are stored to check the bodies.

“When he pulled out the woman’s body, he saw that she was breathing,” the source said.

“You never expect to open a fridge and find someone there alive,” the employee added. “Can you image if we had begun the autopsy and killed her?”

The woman, who had suffered serious head injuries, was rushed to Leratong Hospital in nearby Krugersdorp, where she remains.

Ambulance company Distress Alert operations manager Gerrit Bradnick said that the presence of another private ambulance crew at the scene added to the chaos and that there was “no evidence” of negligence.

“Equipment used to determine life showed no form of life on the woman,” he said, adding: “A number of things can influence the detection of life, including cold, alcohol, drugs and injuries.”

“This did not happen because our paramedics are not properly trained.”

Bradnick said the reason for the mis-declaration was “a mystery”.

“Thinking about her injuries, how long she lay waiting for the mortuary officials, the trip back to the morgue, then how she would have been undressed, weighed and then put in the fridge… we are just thankful she is alive,” he told Times Live.

The Gauteng district health department is to investigate the incident.