Investigators are digging deeper into how a mom in England who was seemingly dead was found alive. Olive Martin was making toast for breakfast at home on October 13, 2023, when she apparently had a seizure. It is unclear how emergency services were alerted to her medical distress, but police and an ambulance rushed to her home. When they got to the hospital, however, the woman wasn’t taken to the emergency room or even into another part of the hospital for treatment. For reasons that are unclear, Martin was taken to the hospital morgue instead. The only problem is, the woman wasn’t dead.
During an inquest held on December 2, 2025, it was revealed that the 54-year-old woke up in the morgue at Darlington Memorial Hospital, The Northern Echo reported. Paramedics had declared her dead, but evidently they were wrong.
James Donnelly, who was representing the North East Ambulance Service, told the Crook Coroner’s Court that Martin “was observed in the mortuary to have some signs of life.”
According to reporting from The Telegraph, Martin died from brain damage “some time later,” Coroner Jeremy Chipperfield said.
Tom Barclay Semple, an attorney for Martin’s family, suggested “the outcome could have been different” if she had gotten proper treatment.
“If Olive had been treated in the way she should have and taken to hospital, would the outcome have been different?” he asked, according to The Northern Echo. “There is a credible argument to say there was a window of opportunity where Olive received no treatment at all,” he said, adding her life “was in the hands of paramedics.”
Chipperfield argued that there are a variety of unknowns about what happened to Martin after the suspected seizure. “The difficulty we face is that we don’t know how long she was there. We don’t know how long she had been without oxygen to her brain at that point,” he explained.
Semple countered, saying, “We know that when Olive was found in her kitchen, she had put toast in her toaster. If that was when she was having her seizure, we can extrapolate from that,” Metro UK reported. He also suggested working backward from time of day and her body temperature.
At the time of Martin’s death, Andrew Hodge, director of paramedicine at North East Ambulance Service, released a statement. “As soon as we were made aware of this incident, we opened an investigation and contacted the patient’s family,” he shared. “We are deeply sorry for the distress that this has caused them. A full review of this incident is being undertaken and we are unable to comment any further at this stage.”
Martin’s family had previously released a statement about her death. “Our Mam will always be remembered for her kind heart, her infectious personality and her positivity day in and day out,” the statement began, per Metro UK.
“She was our warrior, and she will be deeply missed by every person she has ever met. We would request privacy at this difficult time.”
A police investigation was mounted at the time of her death, but no criminal charges were made. The inquest will continue on January 30, 2026.
