An elderly woman from Brazil was declared dead by her attending doctor and sent to the morgue still alive.

O Globo newspaper reports, patient Rosa Celestrino de Assis, had two strokes and was placed on assisted breathing. On Friday evening, a nurse phoned her attending doctor after she failed to show any vital signs. The doctor ran tests, confirmed her death, and sent her to the morgue.

If the patient's daughter had not come for a last embrace, de Assis, who is in her 60s, would have stayed in the morgue until her death for real.

"I went to give my mum one last hug, and I could feel that she was breathing. I screamed out - my mum is alive! And they all looked at me like I was crazy," Rosangela Celestrino, the patient's daughter, told O Globo.

"Not only did I have to go collect my mum from a cold storage drawer at the morgue, but when I got there, I find her still breathing," Celestrino added.

De Assis spent at least two hours in a plastic body bag in the morgue.

Hospital director Manoel Moreira Filho told O Globo the mistake was spotted at about 10pm, and the patient was immediately placed back on life support.