Siberian grandfather discovered alive just a week after reportedly ‘dying’ of Covid-19: family suing Russian authorities for compo

With over a million deaths, there are now countless people who know someone to have passed away from Covid-19. For one Russian family, mourning was followed by a shock, after their ‘dead’ relative turned out to be very much alive.

In the tiny Siberian village of Shabanovo, around 3,000km east of Moscow, an elderly pensioner was laid to rest in a closed coffin, after being hospitalized with coronavirus. Just a week later, the family received a call from the man’s nursing home with news that their dead relative was, in fact, still living – and they had buried a different man.

According to the nursing home’s acting director, Savely Sarbadakov, two elderly residents were diagnosed with Covid-19, their identities were mixed up when one passed away.

“In August of this year, two guests of a nursing home aged 80 and 71 were taken to one of the regional hospitals,” read a statement from the local investigative committee. “One of them died in the intensive care unit. Relatives of the 71-year-old elderly man were informed of his death and given the body for burial in a closed coffin. After some time, the relatives were informed that there was an error, they buried another person, and their loved one is alive.”

The man’s granddaughter is determined to seek compensation for moral and material costs, claiming that the authorities treated her grandfather like “furniture.”

Shabanovo is located in Kemerovo Oblast, known for being one of the country’s most important industrial regions for its extensive coal deposits. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the area has recorded 11,878 confirmed Covid-19 cases, and 143 deaths.

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