The body of a man, believed to be dead, is doused in bleach. Source: ABC News
An American television crew have captured the horrifying moment when a man, presumed to have died from Ebola disease, regains consciousness as he is lifted into a body bag by a burial team.
Dr Richard Besser, an ABC news journalist, was reporting on the streets of the Liberian capital Monrovia to show how authorities go about clearing up deceased bodies on the street.
Within one hour the burial team was here.
Footage shows the burial team dousing the man's body in bleach, which is a regular precaution to stop the spread of infection, before picking him up and putting him in a bag on the side of the road in front of hundreds of Liberian onlookers.
Workers pack up the man's body, only to find out he is alive. Source: ABC News
But, to the shock of the burial team, the man begins to move his arm as he is lifted into the body bag.
"He's alive! He's not dead!" Besser exclaimed to the delight of the crowd.
The man's condition was very poor and it is unclear whether or not he survived. Residents said they spent days trying to revive the man, with no apparent success.
Resources are better equipped to handle dead bodies than to treat the ill. Source: ABC News
Ironically, the man was taken from the body bag onto a stretcher and put in the same ambulance he was supposed to be originally taken in.
Besser said he was unsure where the ambulance was going to take the man given a crippling shortage of hospital beds for the ill in Liberia.
"The problem that they have here, is there's a lot more room for dead bodies than there are for people who need treatment," Besser said.
"They had someone sick here yesterday," Besser said to the camera. "They didn't think it was Ebola, they thought it was something else and they called for help and no one came. They called again and no one came. Not until he died, a 37-year-old man, did they come. Within one hour the burial team was here."
Almost 2000 Liberians have been killed by the deadly Ebola virus, which has devastated West Africa and thrown its health system into complete overdrive.
Besser has previously said the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the most devastating thing he has witnessed in his time as a journalist.
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