Man told his wife had died before finding her asleep on hospital ward

A man who was told his wife had died by a nurse was shocked to find her in a hospital ward sleeping.

Frank Priddis, 63, from the UK received a call to say that his wife Sandra, who was being cared for in the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital, had passed away from bladder cancer, reports The Telegraph.

An hour later, bus driver Priddis found out that Sandra was, in fact, still alive.

He said "She [the nurse] asked if we could come over to the hospital to see the doctor who would explain exactly what had happened.

"We were acknowledged by another member of staff who asked if she could help. We explained that we had arrived to speak to the doctor as we were told that my wife had just passed away. She apologised and said she would get the nurse in charge.

"In the meantime, for some unknown reason, I just happened to turn and look through the window into the ward, where I saw my wife fast asleep in her bed.

"It turns out the nurse that had made the call had in fact picked up the wrong file and contacted the wrong family. I said 'if this is a joke, it is a sick one'."

The incident happened in September 2016, but Mr Priddis decided not to go public with the blunder as he didn’t want Sandra to know. She has since died

It is believed that Mr Priddis has met with the hospital’s Trust several times following the mix-up, who assured him that procedures are in place to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Chief nurse at the hospital Trust, Em Wilkinson-Brice told The Telegraph: "We are very grateful for the time Mr Priddis spent with us discussing his complaint and for his constructive suggestions.

"We have taken these on board and as a result we have since changed our processes to minimise the risk of a patient being wrongly identified in this particular way again."