 The KwaZulu-Natal department of health said on Friday it had launched a full investigation into the matter of a car accident victim who was found alive inside a refrigerator in one of its mortuaries after he had been declared dead earlier this week. “When his family arrived for identification purposes, a pulse was found in the patient by mortuary staff, who then immediately transported him to Mahatma Gandhi hospital for resuscitation,” Imran Keeka, a provincial official for the opposition Democratic Alliance party, said yesterday. To this end, the department would like to express condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.” 
 
 Mkhize’s family was reported to be seeking answers from the department as to how the blunder occurred and whether his life could have been saved if he had been taken to hospital earlier. Mkhize was hit by a car while walking home with a friend on Monday evening and was declared dead at the scene by Emergency Medical Rescue Services (EMRS) paramedics and taken to the mortuary. The investigation comes after 28-year-old Msizi Mkhize from KwaMashu Township was found to be alive in a refrigerator at the Phoenix mortuary on Tuesday morning when his family went to view the body. The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) spokesperson on health in KZN and a general practitioner, Dr Rishigen Viranna, called for an urgent and extensive investigation into the Mkhize matter by the provincial health department. Despite a five-hour period of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and warming process by doctors, nurses and staff, Mkhize died. “The DA has written to the hospital management to commend the efforts of the staff to attempt resuscitation. “This horrific event has again highlighted the extreme shortcomings within the KZN health department’s EMRS and mortuary services.” 
 
 Last month, the DA gave KZN Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo a score of 1/10 in its annual scorecard rating the performance of the province’s MECs, saying he was not wielding any power in his department and that was compromising the province’s public healthcare system. Health Department head, Dr Sifiso Mtshali, said: “The department cannot comment at this stage, as it is still gathering the facts regarding this matter.” 
 
 Daily News
– It's the kind of story you'd hope would have a miraculously happy ending, but it wasn't to be in South Africa. Last Monday evening, 28-year-old Msizi Mkhize was struck by a car in Durban and pronounced dead at the scene, reports the Times of London. He was transferred to the local morgue and placed in the facility's refrigerator—only to be discovered alive the next day, when his family came to identify the body. "A pulse was found in the patient by mortuary staff," says a provincial official. Mkhize was rushed to the hospital, but he died five hours later. Police and health officials have confirmed the story and say a formal inquiry is underway to figure out how the awful mistake happened. “We arrived there at 8am to do the paperwork and view the body of my child," Mkhize's father tells the local Daily News. "It was after 12pm when an employee told one of the doctors my son was alive." Doctors began an intensive effort to warm and resuscitate Mkhize's body, but it was ultimately unsuccessful, reports the Citizen. One official says staffers stayed beyond their shifts to help. “I have no words to express how I feel about what happened to my child," says Mkhize's father. "To spend the entire night and morning in the mortuary refrigerator is wrong." (This is not a first.)