‘Dead’ patient wakes up before organs harvested

A US woman thought to be dead woke up just moments before her organs were about to be removed for transplants, it has been reported.

Colleen Burns had been taken to St Joseph’s Hospital Health Centre in Syracuse after a drug overdose.

She was thought to have been left brain dead and her family took the decision to switch off her life support.

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However, when doctors prepared to remove her organs for donor transplants, Ms Burns stunned medics when she opened her eyes.

Ms Burns was discharged but later committed suicide in 2009.

The incident only became known during a recent inquiry, which found that doctors had failed to check properly for brain activity before declaring her brain dead.