Woman pronounced dead for second time in a week after being mistakenly sent to morgue

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A woman who woke up in a morgue after being mistakenly presumed dead by doctors has passed away less than a week after the incident, according to Russian media reports.

Zinaida Kononova, 81, was first pronounced dead after being admitted to the Gorshechenskaya Central Regional Hospital in south west Russia for surgery to treat an intestinal obstruction.

After removing a malignant tumor, medical officials said the octogenarian had become unresponsive, and consigned her to the morgue after more than half an hour of resuscitation according to local media.

However the following morning an employee is reported to have found the woman alive, having fallen off a bed in the area used to store the bodies of the deceased.

She was swiftly moved to a separate healthcare facility in Kursk, where she was treated in intensive care and underwent further surgery.

However despite the additional care, Ms Kononova is reported to have been confirmed dead a second time by medical practitioners less than a week after her misdiagnosis.

“The operation was done, at first she felt better, but then, unfortunately, the woman suddenly died,” the regional administration said, according to Kazan publication the Komsomol'skaya Pravda.

While the exact circumstances around her misdiagnosed death are being investigated, newspaper the Kursk Izvestia said regional hospitals often lack machinery to measure brain activity - leaving doctors to instead rely on externally observable factors to assess signs of life.

The Kursk Regional Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia is understood to be looking into the incident.

In a statement posted to Telegram, the Kursk regional administration said: “An 81-year-old patient who was admitted to a regional hospital from the Gorshechensky region died. “The Regional Health Committee expresses its condolences to the family and friends of the woman. “An investigation, initiated by the committee in the Gorshechenskaya Central Regional Hospital, continues. Its results will be announced later.”