This morning an unusual case was reported to local newspapers, as a 68-year-old Madeiran woman found out that she was supposedly dead during the middle of her ex-husband’s funeral.
Talking to local newspapers, the woman said that she had been somewhat:
“Disturbed by the situation. To find out in the middle of a burial that you are the one who is dead is a bit unusual. And it is not as though anyone knew when I was supposed to have died! I immediately contacted the Civil Registry Office of Funchal who rectified the situation.
The same source contacted the Regional Director of the Administration of Justice, Jorge de Freitas, who acknowledged that there had been a mistake and that the error was rectified on the same day.
Madeira is not the only country that has these problems. My brother, who lives in Prague had to go to hospital, and when he handed in his medical card a nurse went up to him and said “I’m sorry Mr. Novak but you’re dead! Luckily they realised that they were using an old medical number and had not updated the details. However, they were unable to give him a prescription as they couldn’t give prescriptions to dead people! In the end, they found him a half-used bottle of medicine and gave him that.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com