NOT SO FAST, DOC!

'Dead' prisoner turns out to be ALIVE when he starts wheezing as doctor prepares to cut him open for post-mortem after blunder by Spanish jail wardens

By Gerard Couzens

Daily Mail
January 8, 2018

An investigation is underway after a prisoner was wrongly pronounced dead and taken out of jail in a body bag for an autopsy.

A pathologist raised the alarm after hearing the inmate wheezing as he prepared to cut him open for a post-mortem.

On Sunday night the lucky man, named locally as Gonzalo Montoya Jimenez, was said to be under police guard in hospital in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo.

Authorities at Asturias Central Penitentiary in nearby Villabona have ordered an inquiry to try to get to the bottom of the bizarre gaffe.

The alarm was sounded at breakfast time on Sunday morning when the inmate was found slumped unconscious on a chair in his cell after failing to show for a roll call.

He was bagged up and taken to the Institute of Legal Medicine in Oviedo for an autopsy after being pronounced dead at the scene - and his loved ones informed.

He is understood to have felt ill the day before his dramatic 'death' and 'resurrection'.

A spokesman for the Spanish Prison Service confirmed the man's family had been informed he had 'passed away' as part of standard procedure which kicks in when a prisoner has been declared dead.

She said: 'Two prison doctors concluded he had clinical signs of death following a morning roll call and informed police, his next-of-kin and a local duty court as part of standard procedure.

'The court sent a forensic doctor who was the one who actually confirmed his death.

'I can't comment on what happened at the Institute of Legal Medicine but three doctors have seen clinical signs of death so it's still not clear at the moment exactly why this occurred.'

Civil Guard officers answering to bosses in the northern port city of Gijon have been tasked with keeping watch on the prisoner while he is treated in hospital.

A police source said: 'We got the original call asking us to attend the jail because an inmate had died and acted according to protocol.

'He was taken away for an autopsy without police presence because at that point he was thought to be dead.

'The second call that came in asking for police assistance in taking him to hospital and keeping watch over him while he was there for obvious security reasons obviously came as a bit of a surprise.'

A hospital spokesman confirmed the patient was in intensive care but said he couldn't comment on his condition, although a well-placed source said his life was not thought to be in danger now he was being cared for in the proper place.

Relatives have been visiting him in hospital and are said to be feeling a mix of relief and indignation, although none of them have yet made any public comment.

It was not immediately clear on Monday morning why the inmate was in prison or what length of sentence he was serving.