A BRAZILIAN woman in her 60s being treated in hospital for pneumonia was given up for dead by her attending physician - and sent to the morgue too soon, according to a report.

The doctor felt no vital signs, ran tests and pronounced Rosa Celestrino de Assis dead. She was taken to the morgue and spent at least two hours in a plastic body bag.

"I went to give my mum one last hug, and I could feel that she was breathing. I screamed out - my mum is alive! And they all looked at me like I was crazy," Rosangela Celestrino, the patient's daughter, told O Globo newspaper.

"Not only did I have to go collect my mum from a cold storage drawer at the morgue, but when I got there, I find her still breathing," Ms Celestrino went on.

Hospital officials said the patient had suffered two strokes and had been on assisted breathing. At 7:30pm local time, a nurse phoned the attending doctor because she did not show vital signs. The doctor confirmed her death and sent her to the morgue.

Hospital director Manoel Moreira Filho said the mistake was identified at about 10pm, and the patient was immediately intubated and put back on life support.

It comes after an even more alarming incident in South Africa in July, when a 50-year-old man who was thought to be dead spent 24 hours in a morgue before asking attendants to take him out.