Dead Man Lives

I was shocked to read in today's news that a man somewhere in the South of England had been taken by paramedics to the local undertakers while he was, apparently, still alive.The paramedics found no sign of a pulse or of respiration, but later that day the undertakers found him breathing. The report on the incident said that staff at the local Ambulance Service were encouraged to report incidents so that lessons may be learned.


We can only hope that they have now learned that if someone is alive it's never a good idea to deliver them to the undertakers. Indeed, speaking as someone who lives in the North of England I do hope they transfer this important wisdom to their counterparts in my local Ambulance Service. Since my preference is for cremation, I wouldn't like proceedings to continue until everyone concerned was absolutely sure that I was in fact definitely deceased!