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Dead man improving

What else can you do, but improve, if you are already dead?

Family members got a call Monday night that Green had been killed when he was hit by a car in the intersection of U.S. 401 and N.C. 39. Several hours later, a trooper with the state Highway Patrol came to tell them that Green wasn't dead - a medical examiner at the morgue had discovered Green breathing.

The team of four people responsible for declaring Green dead are suspended with pay:

Though state law outlines how people can be declared brain dead, no statute says who is authorized to declare a person dead, said Dr. John Butts, chief medical examiner for North Carolina. "As a practical matter, people are regularly proclaimed dead by medical personnel who are not physicians," Butts said.

Wish I didn't know that...

Via [Boing Boing]