A New Mexico funeral home owner received the surprise of his career when a man pronounced dead at a hospital came back to life just before he was to be embalmed.

Russell Muffley, the owner of Muffley Funeral Home in Clovis, New Mexico, said he noticed Felipe Padilla breathing when the man pronounced dead at a hospital was being transferred to his facility on Wednesday. Padilla, 94, was rushed back to the same hospital, but did not recover. He was declared dead for a second time.

"When we were getting ready to move him from the stretcher to the embalming table, we noticed signs of life," Muffley said.

Padilla was breathing on his own but not speaking when paramedics took him from the funeral home back to Plains Regional Medical Center. He died a few hours later and was taken back to the funeral home, where arrangements had already been made.

Padilla will be buried next week.

"I have been doing this for 39 years and this has never happened before," Muffley said.

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