Sadly buried the child, turned out to be the wrong person

After a period of grief over his son, an old man in California (USA) almost had a heart attack when he suddenly received a phone call informing him that his son was still alive.

Mr. Frank J Kerrigan (right) and the son whose funeral he just held.

On May 6, police discovered a dead male body behind a Verizon store in Fountain Valley, Orange County. Later, Frank J Kerrigan, 82, of Wildomar, also in California, received a call from the Office of the Coroner with the shocking news: the body was his son, Frank M Kerrigan, 57.

Authorities said the body was decomposed but identification was completed using fingerprints.

“When people called to say my son was dead, and they had fingerprints, I believed them,” ABC News quoted Mr. Kerrigan as saying on June 25.

Mr Kerrigan's daughter, Carole Meikle, even went to the site where the body was found to place photos and candles in memory of her brother.

On May 12, the family held a funeral at a cost of $20,000. About 50 relatives from far and wide came to say goodbye to the unfortunate person and the body was buried at the Orange County Cemetery.

More than 10 days later, Mr. Kerrigan received a call from a friend, informing him that his son was alive. When he heard his son's voice on the other end of the line, he almost fainted with joy.

According to the Orange County Register, the Orange County Coroner's Office staff mistakenly identified the deceased, leading to the ironic situation mentioned above. Frank M Kerrigan himself was mildly mentally ill and did not live with his family, so he did not know that he had been mistakenly reported dead and did not return to correct the situation.

The family decided to file a lawsuit because of the government's negligence that caused them to go through such sad moments./.

According to TNO