A woman who had been declared dead at a hospital left staff horrified when she suddenly came back to life while being transported to her own funeral.
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The unnamed elderly woman had reportedly been pronounced dead after her condition deteriorated at Juan March de Bunyola Hospital in Palma, Majorca.
She was transferred from the hospital mortuary to the Son Valenti funeral parlour to be prepared for burial. But to the shock of the funeral home staff, they discovered she had a pulse and even moved her fingers.
Paramedics were immediately called to the scene and confirmed that the woman was indeed alive. She was rushed back to the hospital.
Her current condition remains unknown, and an internal investigation is now underway to determine how such a critical error was made.
Chilling cases like these are unsettling enough, but another family in the United States recently endured a different kind of horror after unknowingly cremating a stranger they believed to be their missing loved one.
Shanita Hopkins and her family were told that the body of her missing sister, Shanice Crews, had been found in a Rochester vacant lot in early 2024.
The remains, badly decomposed, were identified by dental records, and the cause of death was ruled a cocaine overdose.
The family, unable to view the body due to its condition, proceeded with cremation, mixing what they thought were Shanice’s ashes with those of their late mother and placing them into keepsake necklaces.
Then, seven months later, Hopkins received a cryptic message from a stranger in Detroit. The message included a picture of Shanice and read: “Ma’am, I’m concerned, your sister is not dead. She just volunteered at my event today.”
“My initial reaction was like, ‘What the, what? What am I reading right now?’” Hopkins told WROC 8.
The shocked family demanded answers. Despite the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office standing by their original identification, DNA testing of the remains showed no match to Shanice’s biological relatives.
“We mixed my mom with this stranger,” Hopkins said, outraged. “You can’t take away them initial feelings, you know, like we can’t get that back. We can’t get them seven months back. We can’t get them tears back.”
The medical examiner’s office offered to retrieve the ashes and reimburse the family for funeral expenses, but for Hopkins, that wasn’t enough. “My family was like, ‘no, we need to get a lawyer… just for pain and suffering, because this is crazy.’”
Meanwhile, Shanice Crews, now confirmed to be alive and reportedly in Detroit, has yet to reconnect with her family.
“We can’t force her to talk to us… but she’s alive and well,” Hopkins said. “I love her… I don’t think I’m ever gonna get over the anger, but I know how it feels - I’m sorry - I know how it feels to think that she was dead… I just want her to know that whatever we had going on, it doesn’t even matter. Like, I love her, that’s it.”
As for the woman in Majorca, her shocking return from the brink continues to raise serious questions about how death is confirmed and the risks of catastrophic misidentification, where a pulse, a movement, or even a text message can rewrite reality.