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A valet in Spain who was declared numb by three doctors was actually still alert , which doctors discover only when he began snoring on the autopsy board , concord to news show reports .
The mankind , 29 - year - onetime Gonzalo Montoya Jiménez , was a prisoner at a slammer in northern Spain . He was found unconscious in his cellphone on Sunday ( Jan. 7 ) , and was believed to be dead , according to the Spanish news outletLa Voz de Asturias . Three forensic doctors allegedly examined Jiménez and certified his death .
But 4 time of day later , mighty before Jiménez ’s autopsy , he was hear cook noises on the autopsy table , and was notice to still be alive . This find was not a moment too soon — Jiménez ’s trunk even had the German mark painted on it to guide theautopsy , a house member told La Voz de Asturias .
He has now regain consciousness and is in the intensive care unit at the Central University Hospital of Asturias ( HUCA ) in Oviedo , Spain .
But how , exactly , does something like this hap ?
Determining whether someone is deadened or live might vocalize simple enough , but there are not universal road map for just when Dr. should pronounce someone dead . " You ’re dead when a doctor enounce you ’re bushed , " Dr. James Bernat , a brain doctor at Dartmouth College ’s Geisel School of Medicine in New Hampshire , told Live Science in a 2014 consultation .
Broadly utter , a person may be declare dead when one of two thing pass off : Their heart break beating and does n’t start again , or they are " braindead . " A person is considered brain - dead when he or she no longer has any neurologic activity in the psyche or brain fore — meaning no electric impulses are being sent between nous cells .
Dr. do a number of tests to determine whether someone is brainiac - utter , such as checking whether the individual can pioneer his or her own breath , Dr. Diana Greene - Chandos , an assistant professor of neurologic surgical process and neurology at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center , told Live Science in a 2014 consultation .
In the late font , Jiménez ’s kinsperson said Jiménez had epilepsy , and they suspect the consideration may have played a character in the unusual circumstances of his dare death , according to La Voz de Asturias . Some masses withepilepsycan experience a consideration called catalepsy , or a " trancelike " state in which their brawniness become set and they are unresponsive to stimuli .
This is n’t the first time a person has been label dead when they were actually alive . For example , in 2014 , a 91 - year - old woman in Poland was hold dead and drop 11 hours in a mortuary before faculty discovered her body udder moving and found her awake , according to the BBC .
